Brisbane-based bitcoin startup Diamond Circle has opened a fundraising round via the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board, shortly after launching its bitcoin kiosk product.
The bitcoin kiosk is an ATM that allows users to purchase bitcoins with a credit card. The startup also provides pay and wave bitcoin debit cards which allow distributors and merchants to accept bitcoins and earn commission by accepting bitcoins on purchases, providing cash-out facilities and for selling those bitcoin debit cards.
Diamond Circle is looking to raise $1 million for 20% stake of the company. Its revenue for the 2013/14 financial year was $170,000, and it’s projecting revenue will increase to $12.7 million in 2014/15, $74 million in 2015/16 and $163 million in 2016/17.
It plans to use the capital from the $1 million raise to distribute and enhance its MVP, strengthen its distributor/partner relationships, add further product lines and development, and marketing.
Managing director Stephen Rowlison says the startup has solved the issue of bitcoin price volatility by linking traditional banking systems to the Diamond Circle debit card page.
“Diamond Circle has developed a range of products and services that sit at the point of exchange from traditional ‘fiat’ currencies into cryptocurrencies and vice versa,” he says in the round’s offer document.
“Innovations include a cashless crypto ATM (showcased at Amsterdam’s Global Bitcoin 2014 conference), merchant ready NFC-enabled PoS devices (both fixed and mobile) and a patented crypto Debit Card (“Bitwave” enabled, and designed for co-branding).
“Whilst the technology behind the company may be applied to any cryptocurrency, the current marketing efforts concentrate on the best-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin…”
The exit plan for the startup is for a trade sale in two to three years’ time, with a money transmission business being the likely acquirer.
Kye began his career at a Fairfax daily on the North-West Coast of Tasmania. He has since taken his belongings, and keen interest in technology, to Melbourne. He has a bachelor of Arts majoring in Political Science from the University of Tasmania and a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from RMIT University.
