{"id":18577,"date":"2020-07-16T20:13:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T20:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe6e900f2697"},"modified":"2020-07-16T20:13:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T20:13:42","slug":"zap-announces-3-5-million-seed-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/technical\/zap-announces-3-5-million-seed-round","title":{"rendered":"Zap Announces $3.5 Million Seed Round"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lightning wallet provider Zap today formally announced a $3.5 million seed round fundraise from investors including Morgan Creek Digital and CMT Digital. The announcement follows recent news that Zap opened its Strike application to public beta<\/a> and that it had joined Visa\u2019s Fast Track Program to create a debit card, expected to launch by the end of 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am beyond excited to have the support of strategic investors and companies in the Bitcoin and payments spaces,\u201d Jack Mallers, the CEO of Zap, said in a release shared with Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>. \u201cZap\u2019s ultimate goal is to make bitcoin more accessible and used for all that it has to offer by the masses. With these partnerships, there\u2019s no doubt in my mind we\u2019re going to accomplish that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Strike public beta, announced earlier this month, allowed anyone to try out the app and transact with Lighting payments using just a debit card or bank account. Users of the app don\u2019t have to buy bitcoin or fund Lightning channels themselves, dramatically reducing the barrier to entry for Bitcoin\u2019s second layer technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Strike, users can interact with millions of existing users from day one,\u201d Mallers told Bitcoin Magazine<\/em> as part of the public beta announcement. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen Strike be used for general online commerce, brick and mortar commerce, buying bitcoin, selling bitcoin, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mallers has said<\/a> that the Strike card would be an offering for consumer app users and that he hopes to integrate Visa Direct, the company\u2019s fastest transferring platform, into its consumer app as well.<\/p>\n

The release went on to note that Zap will leverage the funds to expand on Strike and the rest of its product suite, while also expanding its team and partnerships.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack and his team have built an incredible platform that bridges the gap between digital assets and traditional forms of payment,\u201d Colleen Sullivan, CEO of CMT Digital, said, according to the release. \u201cThe team he\u2019s building is exceptionally talented, with a deep understanding of the technology driving innovation in the payments space.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After rolling out its Strike app to public beta and partnering with Visa on a debit card, Lightning wallet provider Zap has announced a $3.5 million seed round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2705,"featured_media":18578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[531,532,1612,1673],"class_list":{"0":"post-18577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technical","8":"tag-jack-mallers","9":"tag-strike","10":"tag-visa","11":"tag-zap"},"author_data":{"id":2705,"name":"Peter Chawaga","nicename":"peter-chawaga","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/peterc-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zap-olympus-a-fiat-to-lightning-network-on-ramp.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}