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San Francisco based bitcoin and digital payments company Ripio (formerly BitPagos) has secured $1.9m in Series A funding led by Huiyin Blockchain Venture. The company was founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2014, and previously raised undisclosed seed funding.
As part of the news, BitPagos is also renaming itself to Ripio, which means gravel in Spanish. That’s also the name of its consumer credit product, which enables those with limited banking history to get credit through the use of its consumer wallet service. CEO Sebastian Serrano (pictured at the top) told TechCrunch that the name is better suited for running a consumer business — it’s also more symbolic. “I grew up in Choele Choel, Rio Negro in the Patagonia region. Most roads there are made of Ripio,” he explained. “Ripio is used in the country to open roads, and we are opening roads for financial inclusion.” Ripio plans to use the new funding to expand its services into Brazil and Mexico, initially through its wallet service but later adding the credit system.
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