bitbond

Bitbond Gets 5M Euro Debt Commitment to Boost Sales

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Bitbond logoBitcoin based SME marketplace lender Bitbond has received a commitment from Obotritia Capital to fund loans worth 5 million Euro through its platform. Additionally, Obotritia invested an undisclosed amount of equity to acquire a stake in Bitbond.

With the debt commitment, SME loans from European prime borrowers will be funded instantaneously on Bitbond. This will reduce the time it takes for business owners to apply and receive a loan to 30 minutes.

The equity investment from Potsdam based Obitritia will be used by Bitbond for further product development and marketing. Bitbond plans to continue growing its user base with online sellers and small businesses who need working capital financing.

Over 1,700 loans worth 1.4 million Euro were originated through Bitbond since its launch in 2013. 90,000 users from 120 countries registered with the service to date.

Founder & CEO of Bitbond Radoslav Albrecht said: ‘The debt commitment by Obotritia brings Bitbond to the next level in our efforts to provide universal SME financing. The next step is to work with partners. Such partners could be online marketplaces who want to add value to their platforms by giving their merchants access to instant cash through Bitbond.’ Continue reading →

Bitcoin Based P2P Lending Service Bitbond Raises 1.1M EUR Round

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Bitbond LogoSME lending platform Bitbond today announced the closing of an equity funding round of 1.1 million EUR. This round brings Bitbond’s raised equity capital to a total of 2.2 million EUR.

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 USD 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.” Albrecht contributed a guest article on bitcoin p2p lending in the past on P2P-Banking.

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. Continue reading →

Bitbond Raises 600K Euro

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Bitbond LogoBitcoin lending platform Bitbond today announced an angel funding round of 600,000 EUR. The round brings Bitbond’s raised capital to a total of 800,000 EUR.

Led by Bitbond’s earlier seed investor Point Nine Capital, a number of business angels contributed  to the round. Among them were Florian Heinemann, Uwe Horstmann, Christian Vollmann and Felix Jahn. Bitbond will use the additional funds to grow its user base and to increase its activity in emerging markets which are underserved by traditional lenders. The platform went live in July 2013. Since then over 600 loans were originated through the platform.

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.”

According to the IFC (International Finance Corporation of the World Bank) the global credit gap of microenterprises and small and medium sized businesses is around USD 2 trillion. Bitbond seeks to help solve this problem by creating a global market for small business loans that is accessible to everyone via the internet.

Since its first external funding in August 2014 Bitbond introduced a number of technological advancements. These include exchange rate pegged loans which allow borrowers and lenders to mitigate bitcoin price fluctuations.

CEO Radoslav Albrecht wrote the guest post ‘Bitcoin P2P Lending – a Primer in 8 Steps‘ in Dec. 2014 for P2P-Banking.com.

Editor’s comment: My personal opinion is that cross-border lending based on bitcoin is currently a high risk proposition to investors. While I appreciate some of the technological advantages the platform pursues, I think further development is needed, especially in debt collection processes.

Bitcoin P2P Lending – a Primer in 8 Steps

Guest

This is a guest post by Radoslav Albrecht who is the Co-founder and CEO of Bitbond – a global Bitcoin peer-to-peer lending platform based in Berlin

When Zopa went live in 2005 it was the first online peer-to-peer lending platform. At the beginning many people thought it wasn’t the best idea to lend money to individuals. The majority felt better by bringing their savings to a bank. Critics didn’t realize that banks were handing out the money to individuals and businesses in quite the same manner – only that through P2P lending this happens at lower operating costs and better customer convenience.

Since early 2009 another new financial innovation came up – the digital currency bitcoin. Entire books have already been written about bitcoin. We will only scratch its surface here. Bitcoin can be looked at from at least two perspectives, the technology perspective and the application perspective. We won’t dive into the technology here. When discussing bitcoin P2P lending, the application of bitcoin as a currency is the relevant perspective.

1. Bitcoin as a currency

As a currency bitcoin offers a number of significant advantages. You can send bitcoins to any location in the world and they will be transacted in a few seconds. It’s very similar to sending an email. Therefore the best analogy between bitcoin and a wire transfer is that between email and a letter. The letter can take up to a couple of days depending on where you’re sending it. The email gets to the receiver instantaneously, and so does bitcoin. Continue reading →