BBVA Ventures Invests in Leading Bitcoin Platform Coinbase

Founded in June 2012, San Francisco-based Coinbase gives consumers and merchants the ability to easily buy, sell, store and transact with Bitcoin, and provides developers with the tools they need to create new applications for Bitcoin on top of its core technology.

Bitcoin is the world’s largest application of the emerging blockchain technology, an online, public ledger that verifies transactions in the digital currency.

“At its core, Bitcoin is a decentralized protocol that enables exchange of value among parties around the world, giving it the potential to alter the financial services landscape,” said BBVA Ventures Executive Director Jay Reinemann. “By serving consumers, merchants and developers alike, Coinbase touches the most important aspects of that emerging ecosystem, giving it one of the best viewports into new developments and applications for the technology.”

As of January 2015, Coinbase has 2.1 million consumer wallets, 38,000 merchants processing bitcoin payments through its platform and 7,000 developers building new services based on Coinbase’s APIs.

The $75 million Series C financing round brings the total capital raised by the company to $106 million. The round was led by DFJ Growth, with participation from existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Ribbit Capital.

BBVA Ventures’ mission is to fund and support the most innovative companies in financial services

BBVA Ventures operates through the Group’s representative office in San Francisco. Since launching in 2012, BBVA Ventures has invested in companies such as Personal Capital, Taulia, DocuSign, SumUp and venture funds Ribbit Capital and 500 Startups.