On March 5th, 2015, Abra, the first ever global peer-to-peer teller network that uses a digital cash money transfer, was unleashed into the world at the San Francisco LAUNCH Festival. As Best Overall Winner of the event, Abra moved from months of “stealth operations” to highly public launch into the global remittance market.
The success of Abra is due in part to its backing by a group of venture capital firms that includes RRE Ventures, First Round Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Future Perfect Ventures, and others. Announcement of the award and the funding was shared in the recent newsletter of Future Perfect Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on early stage ventures with technologies and applications that seek to refine data transferring systems. “They are thrilled to be a part of it [Abra]” Future Perfect’s blog declared.
Abra, powered by bitcoin, is a global remittance platform that eliminates the oversight of funds by a third party. Transactions which can happen instantaneously have the potential to disrupt the cost structure of the global remittance industry currently served by corporations such as Western Union.
Founder Bill Barhydt, who debuted the bitcoin venture, stated in an interview conducted by JOB Portraits leading up to the Festival, the primary goal of Abra is to reduce the often obscure fees of the remittance market, which attaches additional costs to money transfers.
People that wish to use Abra need only download the app on their smartphone, enter some basic credentials for identification purposes, and they are ready to go. Cash can be deposited into the app through a debit card, or if the user wishes, a designated teller, who are subject to a ratings system. The intent is to offer a secure alternative money transfer system that is less expensive by cutting out the current more expensive intermediaries.
