NEM Ventures, the venture capital and investment division of the NEM blockchain ecosystem, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency platforms with a market cap of more than $300 million (at time of writing), has reportedly made an investment in Cyclebit, a provider of “simple, affordable and robust tools” for retail consumers to accept cryptocurrency and fiat payments for in-store, online and “on-the-go” purchases.
Dave Hodgson, director and co-founder of NEM Ventures, stated:
“Cyclebit is already an established player in the crypto and fiat payments space, and we are thrilled to make a strategic investment in this project at a time of major growth for the organization. With an existing global presence and the potential to help bring crypto to the mainstream, we are aligned in our vision to bring crypto to mass adoption.”
As mentioned in a press release shared with CrowdFund Insider, Cyclebit aims to bridge the gap in the road to the mainstream adoption of digital assets by teaming up with brick-and-mortar retailers and merchants throughout the world and setting up point of sale (PoS) terminals that accept cryptocurrency payments. By doing so, Cyclebit will be helping to bridge the crucial gap between traditional businesses and consumers who are eager to perform transactions using digital currencies.
Some Canadian residents are already paying municipal taxes in cryptocurrencies and fiat. There are more than 200,000 PoS terminals at present, and the platform has the capacity to support “millions of transactions” each month.
The Cyclebit wallet is expected to launch early next year in collaboration with Tangem, the creator of “the first smart banknote” for crypto-assets. The wallet will function as a universal wallet for “all fiat and cryptocurrencies, enabling users to load their credit cards onto Cyclebit,” the release noted.
Users will have the option of managing their funds through one simple wallet, while being able to keep their assets secure in cold, or offline, storage.
The release said that by “linking, customers, merchants, exchanges, and coin issuers, Cyclebit fosters a community of users globally.” Headquartered in Canada, Cyclebit will be launching it services in Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy and the UAE.
As explained in the announcement, Cyclebit allows users to make payments with NEM’s native digital currency, XEM (since last year). The strategic partnership investment aims to further support the growth and development of NEM’s proprietary Catapult technology, which is expected to launch early next year.
The investment will provide the ability to expand the current global service in North America, which will allow consumers to pay in XEM and Catapult tokens at retail outlets in many different countries.
Sameer Pirani, CEO at Cyclebit, remarked:
“The upcoming Catapult launch will undoubtedly make waves in the industry, and we are excited to be partnering with NEM Ventures at this monumental time. This investment makes it possible to continue scaling our PoS terminals globally, and we can’t wait to continue diversifying our user base with a major industry player by our side.”
As the VC and investments division of the NEM blockchain platform, NEM Ventures supports the development and adoption of the NEM technology via strategic investment in “meaningful, high-tech projects,” the release stated.
NEM Ventures aims to invest in projects which appear to have long-term potential and the “desire to promote the growth of the [larger] blockchain ecosystem.”