Bitbond raises $1.2 million to grow SME lending platform

This round brings Bitbond’s raised equity capital to a total of $2.3 million.

Led by mobilike founder Şekip Can Gökalp, a number of business angels contributed to the round. Among them were Fyber founders Janis Zech and Andreas Bodczek as well as Kreditech co-founder & CEO Alexander Graubner-Müller.

Bitbond will use the additional funds for further product development and to grow its user base in markets which are underserved by traditional lenders. Over 1,600 loans worth $1.2 million were originated on Bitbond since its launch. 76,000 users from 120 countries registered with the service to date.

Founder & CEO of Bitbond Radoslav Albrecht said: “The additional resources will help us to continue realizing our mission which is to make lending and borrowing globally accessible. We are happy to have such experienced investors supporting us on this exciting journey.”

In October 2016 Bitbond received their own regulatory licence by German financial services supervisor BaFin. This makes the service one of the first and only regulated blockchain based financial services providers.

The startup from Berlin connects investors who look for above average fixed-income investment opportunities with small business owners who need a loan. To make global cross-border lending possible, the platform uses the bitcoin blockchain for payment processing.

Investors finance the loans of small business owners via Bitbond and by that get access to attractive interest rates. Most of the platform’s borrowers are online sellers who run a shop on e-commerce marketplaces like eBay or Amazon. Bitbond conducts a credit check based on the revenue data of the merchants who use the loans for inventory financing. In September 2016 Bitbond launched its automated scoring mechanism at Finovate New York.