Circle Internet Financial was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in Boston, Massachusetts in 2013, and has as its international operations headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
The company announced it had raised USD 60 million in funding from a consortium led by IDG, an American based media, data and marketing services and venture capital organization. Among other investors: Baidu, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst Partners, CICC Alpha, China Everbright Investment and Assets Management, IBMs former chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano, and Silver Lakes co-founder Glenn Hutchins.
Circles entrance on the Chinese P2P payment market with Bitcoin coincided with Goldman Sachs and Barclays partnership, which was the first time a European bank has allowed a digital currency company to use its infrastructure enabling it to transfer sterling, euro and dollars, according to cointelegraph.com.
Circle’s Chinese branch aims to capitalize on a population that is already comfortable with payments made over social media, even though Bitcoin payments in China are currently not officially recognized by the Chinese government as a legal means of funds transfer yet.
China already has a mobile payment and money management market dominated by local players Alipay and Tencent and Allaire says Circle wont try and compete with the dominant brands.
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