BRD raises $32 million to expand its revamped bitcoin app
BRD, a bitcoin and cryptocurrency mobile wallet today announced they have successfully raised $32 million to fuel customer acquisition and introduce a rewards program concept.
The $32 million was raised from a combination of venture capital funding, with existing investor East Ventures involved in the round and a crowdsale. BRD recently announced the availability of its long-awaited “Augustus” release, which enables receiving, sending, and buying of ERC20 tokens through a partnership with Changelly, a popular cryptocurrency exchange.
The new funds will enable BRD (formerly Bread Wallet) to scale its technology platform, expand its engineering and business development team at its new offices in Chicago, Bend, and Tokyo and bring its ecosystem of bitcoin and cryptocurrency services to more people.
“Since launching BRD as the first iOS bitcoin wallet in the App Store over 3 years ago, we’ve grown tremendously across the globe because of our dedication to decentralization,” said Adam Traidmen, CEO and Co-founder of BRD. “With our new offering to exchange tokens directly in the app, enabled by our trusted partner Changelly, consumers everywhere will now enjoy the simplicity in which they can buy bitcoin and cryptocurrencies along with assurances that they are protected in a virtually unhackable environment.”
“Partnering with BRD is a huge step forward for Changelly,” said Konstantin Gladych, CEO, and Co-founder of Changelly. “Regarding their super-friendly community, a quite simple interface and seamless user experience, I am deeply convinced that our collaboration will take mass cryptocurrency adoption to the new level and bring mutual benefits in the long run.”
The BRD Rewards program and the BRD token has utility on two fronts: Deep discounts when using financial services within the BRD app, and a tiered status with perks based on how many tokens a user holds. BRD has implemented a groundbreaking model in which the rewards points are fixed in supply; there are only 89 million BRD tokens that will ever exist.
“If we’re going to build a new financial system, we might as well revise rewards and loyalty programs too,” says Aaron Lasher, Co-founder of BRD. “Today, hotels and airlines spin up points when earned, and wind them down when redeemed. It works pretty well, but consumers must trust the company to manage the value of their points. We can’t make any more BRD tokens. We have to deliver value to those who hold our token, period. This is a new model and a challenge to the status quo.”
“An astonishing 50% of our customers bought their first bitcoin within the past year,” said Adam Voisine, President, and Co-founder of BRD. “Our deep focus around usability and simple security has paid off in a big way for us.”
