With Coinbase coming to town, the bitcoin wars are heating up in Europe. Denmark’s Coinify announces today that they’ve received a “multi-million” capital injection by SEED Capital to help position them as the leading player in Europe, and announce some acquisitions that will help them do so.
Digging into Conify, the company allows merchants to accept bitcoin payments in next-day settlements. Their plugin allows merchants on platforms like Magento, WooComerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify to start accepting bitcoin payments, while brick-and-mortar stores can also get plugged into this digital currency madness with Coinify Point of Sale software.
On the merchant side they’ve seen some success with 6000 merchants using their platform. Food delivery platform Hungry.dk recently joined by accepting Bitcoin payments for their 800+ connected restaurants, which seems like a great “get” – now people can spend bitcoins in day-to-day life.
With the funding Coinify has done a few acquisitions to better position themselves in the European market. They’ve first acquired Bitcoin Nordic, said to be one of the first and largest European digital currency brokers. In the shopping spree Coinifiy also purchased the intellectual property rights to payment gateway technology as well as merchant relationships from Copenhagen-based Bitcoin Internet Payment System.
Richard Breiter, investment manager at Seed Capital is clearly bullish about this company and the viability of bitcoin, as being one of the few European venture funds that have put money into a bitcoin company. “The internet protocol revolutionised the way we communicate, and the Bitcoin protocol can revolutionise the way we transfer unique digital assets from one internet user to another. Potentially all transactions could in the future be done in virtual currencies. That is a development we have to be a part of, and at SEED Capital we are comfortable being at the forefront of technological development.”
While Coinbase is a sexy international brand, it will still be tough to navigate though Europe’s country-specific banking laws and preferred purchasing methods in a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s still the wild west in the Bitcoin world, who will grab the most market share?
