Bitwala, a Germany-based blockchain banking service backed by consumer electronics maker Sony, has received over €15m ($17.9m) in a funding round led by venture capital firm Earlybird, Gruenderszene has reported.
VC fund Coparion and VC firm Global Brain also contributed to the round, alongside undisclosed existing investors.
Founded in 2015 as a cryptocurrency exchange platform, Bitwala now offers customers a regulated bank account that can process debit and credit transactions as well as cryptocurrencies.
The company has about 150,000 customers that hold a total of about $72m in Bitcoin, according to Gruenderszene. Its partner bank, Wavecrest, shut down in 2018, forcing it to temporarily cease operations.
However, a $4.7m investment by EarlyBird and Coparion in November that year allowed Bitwala to launch its cryptocurrency bank account. Its services are now hosted by SolarisBank.
Bitwala secured $14.3m in an August 2019 series A round co-led by Sony Financial Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund managed by consumer electronics group Sony and Global Brain, with blockchain-focused investment bank NKB Group.
Earlybird and Coparion also contributed to the series A round. Bitwala had received $900,000 of seed funding in a 2016 round led by High-Tech-Gruenderfonds with participation from Digital Currency Group, while VC firm G1 Ventures also lists it as a portfolio company.