Bitcoin savings account app Bitstack raised 1 million euros ($1.05 million) in a funding round led by Founders Future, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS on Wednesday (May 11).
The Paris startup was launched last April by CEO Alexandre Roubaud and CTO Kabir Sethi with the aim of helping people save effortlessly in bitcoin by automatically rounding up daily purchases.
Bitstack is regulated as a digital asset service provider (DASP) by the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) and the French Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR).
Also participating in the funding round were Plug and Play Tech Center, Sharpstone Capital, and business angels including Alexandre Stachtchenko and Claire Balva from KPMG, Owen Simonin (known as Hasheur) from Just Mining, Damien Guermonprez from Lemonway, and Nicolas Bacca, co-founder of Ledger.
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“After 12+ months of hard work building the app and getting regulatory approval as a DASP with the AMF, we launched Bitstack to help everyone save in Bitcoin effortlessly. We’ve already helped 3,000+ users save more than 248,538,786 sats (2.48 Bitcoin) and we are just getting started,” Roubaud said on LinkedIn.
Based on the concept of automatically rounding up bank transactions to the nearest euro, funds are transferred into savings and accumulated throughout the week. The amount is then automatically converted into bitcoin the following Monday.
The app will be officially launched on the App Store and Google Play in the third quarter of this year. Bitstack beta users get 0% fees on bitcoin purchases and sales, after which a 1.99% commission will be applied.
Two months after launching beta access, 3,000 users were onboarded. Bitstack is planning to have 10,000 users and 3 million euros saved in bitcoin by the end of this year.
Additional features offered by Bitstack include recurring savings and a one-time purchase of bitcoins at a minimum of 1 euro ($1.06) using a bank card. The app strives to be easy to use and accessible to all with no investment skills required, according to the release. Bitcoin’s volatility is handled by Bitstack by using dollar-cost averaging (DCA).
“Bitcoin is an unmatched financial alternative: a secure store of value that is not influenced by inflation. Bitstack has a simple proposition: a legible, costless savings solution to meet the life goals of the French, making Bitcoin a reality, not just a fad,” Roubaud said.
