• Bottlepay, a Bitcoin-based global payments app, has raised £11m ($15m) in seed funding

• Investors include British fund manager Alan Howard, present and former Goldman Sachs partners, FinTech Collective and NYDIG

• Funding will be used to expand the team and develop the platform’s functionality and geographical reach

• Bottlepay’s new platform facilitates instant payments in conventional currencies and Bitcoin and strips out transaction charges

23 February 2021 – Bottlepay, a payments disruptor that facilitates real-time global payments, today announced it has secured £11m ($15m) in a seed funding round.

Bottlepay’s radical new payment system is paving the way for a new digital economy and eradicating the barriers to effective instant payments. It aims to give everyone access to an open payment network which allows people to send, spend and receive money anywhere in the world, in real-time.

Bottlepay allows people to be part of a growing cashless society in a way that suits them. It facilitates instant payments, including micropayments, in conventional currencies and Bitcoin, meaning users can pay, donate and tip with as little as a penny.

Funding round participants include a range of global investors including British fund manager Alan Howard, present and former Goldman Sachs partners, venture capital firm FinTech Collective, and financial services firm NYDIG and tech entrepreneur Phil Doye.

Bottlepay will use the funding to expand its team, improve functionality and increase the geographical reach of the service over the coming year.

Over the last 12 months, Bottlepay has been aggressively hiring and has expanded the team by more than 200%. This year it hopes to grow the team by a further 60%.

The firm’s open payment network aims to transform the digital economy by making digital micropayments and cross border transactions viable by vastly reducing the excessive fees usually encountered with the incumbent payment rails. Using Bottlepay’s system, any purchase that is immediately fulfilled – from coffees to digital content – can be made from anywhere in the world with instant payments using conventional currencies or Bitcoin.

Bottlepay’s new app also enables seamless social payments with a single tweet, message or social media post on platforms such as Twitter, Reddit and Discord.

Bottlepay users can buy, store, send and withdraw Bitcoin with a single slide, unlike other digital payment platforms like PayPal and Revolut, whose users cannot currently spend or withdraw their Bitcoin.

Built on Bitcoin protocols, the system gives consumers and retailers access to a new global market, including 65 million Bitcoin owners. Products that are instantly delivered can be sold without being subject to uneconomic fixed minimum fees, regardless of how small the transaction might be. Access to a news article in a global publication that might normally sit behind a subscription paywall could be purchased on its own for less than a penny, without the prohibitive merchant charges normally attached to the transaction.

Mark Webster, Chief Executive Officer of Bottlepay, said: “Raising £11 million and reaching a post-money valuation of £51 million is a testament to the scale of Bottlepay’s ambition, and an illustration of the effort and resources invested to build and design a revolutionary payments infrastructure of this magnitude.

“The payments ecosystem is undergoing monumental changes as we move towards a cashless society. Today’s consumer wants to be able to transact freely and easily, without the restrictions of a traditional bank. We believe that with this cash injection, we can build a leading company in this rapidly growing space which will allow people to send, spend and receive payments in a way that works best for them.”

Sean Lippel, Principal and Head of Digital Assets at FinTech Collective, said: “While nearly 65 million people own Bitcoin globally, only a small fraction of that number actually transact daily, meaning we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface on the broader payment use cases for Bitcoin as an open-source money network. We believe Bottlepay’s elegant and intuitive consumer interface, built strategically on top of the power of the Lightning Network, will unlock social, streaming, and micropayments for digital assets. We were attracted to the team’s unique combination of technical and design talent, bound together with a laser-focus on privacy and regulatory compliance”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Contact

For more information, please contact [email protected]

Social Media

Website: https://bottlepay.com
Twitter: @bottlepay
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/bottlepay
Instagram: bottle.pay
Telegram: bottlepay

About Bottlepay

Bottlepay facilitates instant payments, including micropayments, in conventional currencies and Bitcoin. The platform’s open payment network aims to transform the digital economy by making digital micropayments and cross border transactions viable by vastly reducing the excessive fees usually encountered with the incumbent payment rails.

It's mobile app permits social payments, allowing people to send and receive money anywhere at any time via platforms such as Twitter, Reddit and Discord.

The product gained over 20,000 users for a beta version of the app with no marketing, after being rated as the number one Crunchbase Bitcoin start-up globally.

Bottlepay Ltd is registered in the UK and is part of the FCA's Innovation Hub. It adheres to all the regulatory requirements in the regions it serves.