Coinify, a Danish bitcoin exchange and bitcoin payment processing platform is expanding its platform to all 36 EU member states under the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) including Monaco, Malta, Iceland and Croatia.
The SEPA project was initiated in February of 2014, with an aim to make cross-border Euro transfers equivalent to a domestic transfer in a country. Exact description of the project is “To improve the efficiency of cross-border payments and turn the fragmented national markets for euro payments into a single domestic one.”
Coinify plans to expand its services to the countries under the SEPA project to make it even cheaper for those needing to make cross-border remittances/transfers, with 0 transaction fees.
The Danish bitcoin startup completed an early multi-million seed funding led by SEED Capital, the largest tech-focused VC firm in the nation, hoping to be the leading bitcoin startup in Denmark’s cryptocurrency industry.
The investment from SEED Capital and Accelerance allowed Coinify to acquire one of the earliest European bitcoin exchange, Bitcoin Broker Bitcoin Nordic. Due to the acquisition, the bitcoin exchange of Bitcoin Nordic began to operate as a core service of Coinify, with the founder Lasse Birk Olesen appointed as the Chief Product Officer.
Coinify later acquired the intellectual properties and all merchant relationships of one of the largest payment solution providers and payment gateway developer within Europe, Bitcoin Internet Payment System. Kris Henriksen, founder of Bitcoin Internet Payment System, said the company will now focus on technological innovations.
Prior to the funding led by SEED Capital, Coinify was supporting more than 6,000 merchants and 7,000 just from Europe. Moreover, Coinify’s exchange satisfied over 7,000 European users.
With their bitcoin exchange and merchant services solidified, Coinify began to grow its platform and targeted markets including Sweden, the UK, Norway and Denmark and to establish their presence throughout the European region. Coinify specifically targeted Germany and the UK, due to the countries’ large e-commerce markets.
As of now, Coinify plans to seek for investments in the second half of 2015, as Chief Financial Officer Christian Larson stated “We expect to raise a significant amount to make sure that Europe will be playing a leading role in this new payment space. We believe that our strategy on providing the traditional payment service providers with dedicated service is our way in to the market.”
As Coinify expands its service to 36 European countries listed under SEPA, the bitcoin startup hopes to see an increase of trading volume in their exchange and to facilitate more individuals to send cross-border payments throughout Europe.