Seattle cryptocurrency startup Coinme announced Thursday it raised $5.5 million from Pantera Capital as part of its ongoing Series A funding, bringing the total for the round to $10 million.
Founded in 2014, Coinme operates a network of bitcoin ATMs where consumers can exchange cash for cryptocurrency. Through a partnership with Coinstar, the company currently has its machines in more than 3,500 locations across the United States.
Coinme CEO Neil Bergquist says transaction volumes have increased by more than 40 percent since February, citing the current state of the economy and the kiosks’ convenient locations in essential businesses like grocery stores and pharmacies.
“We have an economic situation where the supply of dollars is increasing while the supply of bitcoin is decreasing. As the U.S. prints and injects more cash into the economy, it will take more of those dollars to buy goods and services. On the other hand, bitcoin’s halving is reducing its supply by decreasing the mining rewards by 50 percent,” Bergquist told Built In in an email. “People are starting to understand this, and it’s causing a sharp increase in people buying bitcoin since it is a deflationary asset. In our case, people are buying bitcoin at the grocery store at a Coinstar kiosk, while they also stock up on other essentials.”
Coinme also developed a proprietary API and digital wallet that can “crypto-enable” any existing ATM or point-of-sale device, making it easier for users to access bitcoin.
The company will use this most recent funding to complete the development of its app and expand into Latin America. Bergquist also says the company plans to increase its team of 28 employees by 50 percent by the end of the year and will be hiring backend engineers, accountants, customer support reps and a marketing leader to “help [the company] accelerate adoption.” He suggests interested candidates email [email protected].
