Bitcoin Mining Giant BitFury Announces $20 Million Funding Round

Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer BitFury has announced $20m in new financing that it will use to further strengthen its international market presence while accelerating its production of ASIC, semiconductor and server products.

Participants in the round included Binary Financial, Crypto Currency Partners, Georgian Co-Investment Fund, Queensbridge Venture Partners and ZAD Investment Company.

Additional funding was provided by former Google employee, former General Catalyst managing director and Snapchat investor Jonathan Teo, and Glyde and Scribd board member Bill Tai.

Valery Vavilov, CEO of the San Francisco and Amsterdam-based company, framed the funding as a validation of the company's market position, stating:

"This investment will further accelerate our growth, and we are excited to strengthen our industry leadership with next-generation hardware and services."

Binary Financial indicated that its investment in the company was made due to the strength of the company's technology and its team, telling CoinDesk:

"As a trusted broker for large bitcoin transactions, Binary Financial made a strategic investment in BitFury, and we believe BitFury will continue to lead the way for ASIC development."

The funding round is one of the largest in the bitcoin ecosystem to date, coming in below BitPay's record-breaking $30m Series A and equalling the $20m round raised by secure storage and consumer wallet provider Xapo in March.

International expansion

Though allegedly housing its operations in strategic locations around the globe, BitFury says it will use the new funding to build out its facilities and develop new opportunities in other areas of the burgeoning bitcoin market.

Vavilov suggested that BitFury aims to continue to seek investments, perhaps next by bring its business to the public markets, saying:

"The success of this funding round validates our strategy and brings us closer to our aspiration of becoming the world’s first publicly listed bitcoin company."

Industry footprint

BitFury operates one of the world's largest bitcoin mining operations, claiming extensive mining operations and datacenters in Finland, Georgia and Iceland.

However, the company's footprint can be seen throughout the mining industry, where its products have played a key role in the development of other major mining infrastructure operations around the globe.

For example, MegaBigPower, one of the North America's largest commercial bitcoin operations, powers its warehouse with BitFury-designed rigs, while Las Vegas-based CoinSeed purchased $5m in BitFury mining gear to launch a large-scale bitcoin mining clearing house this past January.

Image via CoinDesk