Bitreserve raises £6.3 million in crowdfunding round

Bitreserve founder Halsey Minor

With a crowdfunding campaign operating in both the US and the UK, Bitreserve, a Bitcoin wallet startup with offices in San Francisco and Shanghai, raised £6.3 million (around $9.6 million US) before 2014 drew to a close, reported several media outlets.

Forbes reported that Bitreserve used San Francisco-based investment platform Venovate to raise funds from its community of “sophisticated” (institutional) investors, while in the UK the company used London-based crowdfunding system Crowdcube, raising half-a-million pounds from so-called “everyday investors” and reaching its funding goal with several weeks of the campaign still to go.

According to Crowdfund Insider, Bitreserve is slated to close the round to institutional investors by the end of the month with a total of £7.9 million raised. One estimate placed the company valuation at $90 million, said the news outlet.

Allowing users to hold Bitcoin as fiat money but spend it as digital currency without incurring fees, Bitreserve is the brainchild of technology entrepreneur Halsey Minor, whose successful ventures include CNET, Salesforce.com, Rhapsody, OpenDNS, and Grand Central (Google Voice).

Minor launched Bitreserve last year with the goal of eradicating the volatility associated with digital currencies and to give people greater control over their funds, reported The Telegraph.

“We believe that the revolution in digital money is real when money is simple and free to use, the financial system is sustainable, and for the first time, people feel that they hold their own money,” said Minor, as reported by The Telegraph.

“We have published a real-time, verifiable, proof of solvency so that anyone at any time can confirm that their value is backed one-for-one. We believe this radical transparency is the only way necessary to create a more equitable financial system.”

Crowdfund Insider reported that the funds raised will be used to expand Bitreserve’s engineering team, corporate hiring, and to support global expansion.

“We are delighted to have been a part of this incredibly successful fund raise, bringing added efficiency, transparency and accessibility to the process for both the investor and Bitreserve,” said Venovate founder and CEO Michael Raneri, as reported by Crowdfund Insider.

“Bitreserve is at the forefront of redefining how the world uses currency, and we were excited to offer the qualified investors and advisors on our platform the chance to explore and participate in this type of opportunity.”

Crowdcube co-founder and CEO Luke Lang said, “Bitreserve is the first digital currency company to raise on Crowdcube and the fact that it smashed its investment target demonstrates there’s real interest in the future of digital currency.”

Minor’s headshot via Bitreserve’s Press Room