Website circle.com Headquarters Boston | Founded October 2013 | |
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Launched October 2013; 3 years ago (2013-10) Founders Jeremy Allaire, Sean Neville Profiles | ||
Circle is a peer-to-peer payments technology company utilizing traditional fiat currencies and previously offering bitcoin , although support for the buying of bitcoins through Circle has now been removed. Founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013, Circle’s mobile payment platform, Circle Pay, allows users to hold, send, and receive traditional fiat currencies - similar to payment app Venmo. Circle Pay can also operate as a bitcoin wallet service to buy and sell bitcoins. In September 2015, Circle received the first BitLicense issued from the New York State Department of Financial Services. In April 2016, the British government approved the first virtual currency licensure to Circle. Circle is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Funding
The company has received over US$135 million in venture capital from 4 rounds of investments from 2013 to 2016, including US$50 million led by Goldman Sachs. In April 2015 The New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper wrote that the Goldman Sachs investment "should help solidify Bitcoin’s reputation as a technology that serious financial firms can work with." In June 2016, Circle raised US$60 million in Series D funding backed new and existing partners.
Services and features
As of 2015 a circle account can be funded in USD via "US-issued Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards", US bank accounts, as well as directly via bitcoin. For non-US users funding via debit/credit cards is still experimental and additional currency conversion fees might apply. According to the Circle President, the initial consumer service will be offered completely free of charge, while passing on credit card interchange fees. The Circle conversion rate is not pegged to a specific exchange and may fluctuate around other bitcoin exchange rates but according to the Circle President "it’s simply never a revenue generator". Britain's Financial Conduct Authority granted Circle an electronic money license in April 2016, expanding the use of Circle's services to the United Kingdom and broadening Circle's relationship with UK bank Barclays. In June 2016, Circle announced it will begin expanding its services to China, where CEO Jeremy Allaire believes "there’s an opportunity for Chinese consumers that want to share value globally with friends in other parts of the world."
In December 2016 the Circle app stopped supporting the exchange of bitcoin but still allows money transfers.