Bitcoin Beach Wallet Creator Raises $3M

Galoy aims to help communities and institutions use bitcoin as money.

The creator of the Bitcoin Beach wallet in El Salvador has raised $3 million in a new seed round, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Galoy, a developer of Bitcoin banking software, worked closely with the Bitcoin Beach community to help them to use BTC as money for daily transactions, empowered by the Lightning Network.

“The suite of Galoy solutions enables any community, company or government to offer banking services using Bitcoin and Lightning,” per the statement.

Kingsway Capital, Trammell Venture Partners, and Balaji Srinivasan joined the company in its mission to accelerate Lightning adoption through the company’s open-source Bitcoin banking platform.

“Galoy is inventing Bitcoin tools at the intersection of SaaS and frontier markets,” said Kingsway Capital founder Manuel Stotz in a statement. “The team has already delivered a successful proof of concept in El Salvador. This can serve as a model for leaders in emerging markets to replicate.”

Craft Ventures led the funding. Fulgur Ventures, Bitcoiner Ventures, Vijay Boyapati, and Brad Mills participated in the seed round.

“We are witnessing Lightning accelerate the evolution of Bitcoin from a speculative asset to a conventional payment rail,” Brain Murray, COO and partner at Craft Ventures, said in a statement. “Galoy is building a platform that will make it simple for everyone around the world to use Bitcoin as money.”

Galoy’s pilot product, the Bitcoin Beach Wallet, served as inspiration for El Salvador’s move to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. The company said its opinionated bitcoin banking platform could be leveraged by communities, governments, and companies seeking to embrace the world’s hardest money.

“The Galoy tech stack includes comprehensive features for launching a Bitcoin Bank: a secure backend API, mobile wallets, point of sale apps, compliance tools and administrative controls,” per the statement. “Galoy also offers hosted ‘Banking-as-a-Service’ (BaaS) solutions for those seeking fully-managed implementations and support.”