The world’s leading remittance company, Western Union, is eyeing the fast growing bitcoin market and seems to be interested in getting a sizeable portion of the bitcoin market as suggested by its recent decision to invest in bitcoin accelerator Digital Currency Group (DGC).
Industry watchers believe Western Union’s move will simplify its increasing interesting in bitcoin and blockchain technologies and a future in bitcoin remittances.
“Over the past six months, we have worked with our investors and other corporate partners to create new models for partnership that create value and opportunity for our portfolio companies, our investors, and the broader corporate ecosystem,” announced DCG.
According to DCG, it is focused on helping companies to learn together and build partnerships to achieve bitcoins true potential and accelerating the development of a better financial system.
The group recently invested $900,000 in Bitcoin remittance and utility bill payment service Bitwala with participation from the Federal Ministry of Economics, the KfW Banking Group, Carl Zeiss, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL & Deutsche Telekom. Based in New York City, DCG has been an active seed investor in the digital currency industry with over 60 investments in nearly 20 countries.In January, it acquired CoinDesk, a media and events company.
Other investors include Beijing-based HCM International Company, and a number of family offices, investment managers, and funds including Gibraltar Ventures, OMERS Ventures, Horizon Kinetics, Kingsbridge Wealth Management, and Wood Investment Partners.
DCG’S investors now span various segments of the financial industry, from banks to insurance companies to global money transfer and payments companies who see the potential of digital currencies and their many applications, manufacturing companies and media companies.
