Bitpagos, a bitcoin merchant processing service focused in Latin America, has rebranded as ‘Ripio’ and has announced raising $1.9 million in Series A funding round, CoinDesk reported.
The startup seeks to raise an additional $400,000 in funding over the next 90 days via AngelList, bringing its total funding to $2.3m. It raised $600,000 its first seed funding round back in July 2014.
Happy to announce we are closing a round! Proud of @RipioApp a team of warriors that never give up!!! https://t.co/hcpIwTTxdQ
— sebastian serrano (@sserrano44) January 3, 2017
The latest funding round was led by Huiyin Blockchain Venture, a China-based VC fund, along with support from Boost VC, Digital Currency Group and Draper VC.
Ripio representative Juan Mendez told CoinDesk that the new capital will be used to grow the company’s business development team and utilizing those resources to further solidify its footing in South American markets. In addition, Ripio also seeks to create growth in markets outside of the region, with a planned launch of its bitcoin brokerage and payment services in Mexico.
"Our main objective for Q1 is to increase our user base in Argentina and Brazil, and (at the same time) expand to Mexico," said Mendez.
Founded in 2013, Bitpagos is a payment gateway that supports bitcoins and focused in Latin America. The gateway accepts bitcoin and credit card payments, pays out to merchants in local currency or bitcoins. It has clients in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Ecuador.
The company representatives said that the decision to rebrand as Ripio comes as the company’s mission has shifted more towards consumer-facing services.
"BitPagos is a brand that was too linked to merchants and B2B payment processing. Over the last year and a half, we've shifted most of our efforts towards users [and] consumers and we needed a brand that suits our mission best”, Mendez said.


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