Abra, a blockchain startup participated by China's Fenbushi Capital, released a blockchain remittance application in the United States

Rage Comment : Abra, a payment application startup, attended the 2016 Consensus Conference. Its CEO Bill Barhydt has always had great global strategic ambitions. In order to achieve the goal of expanding to more than 20 markets around the world in 2017, it has been actively raising funds. Its blockchain remittance application has completed the first round of testing in the Philippines and officially entered the US market. However, some American user experiences have exposed the incomplete cross-platform technical support of the application. Despite this, Citi Research, a research department of Citigroup, still calls Abra one of the few startups that the financial industry should pay attention to.

Translation: Annie_Xu

After months of small-scale testing in the Philippines, blockchain payments app Abra is finally coming to the U.S.

According to previous media reports, Abra is planning an aggressive expansion plan and has raised $14 million so far, with the goal of expanding to more than 20 markets by 2017. Last fall, the company raised a total of $12 million in Series A funding.

Chief Executive Bill Barhydt, formerly chairman of web browser Netscape, likens the U.S. market to the company's "hub" for global entry and therefore the next logical location for its expansion plans.

“It’s really our hub for going global. Abra’s primary focus is cross-border mobile-to-mobile remittances. The U.S. is a key hub for that. We’ve been working diligently to make sure we have access to the U.S. market. Now we’re launching bank account deposits and withdrawals.”

Barhydt said the app was released in conjunction with Synapse, a company that links users' bank accounts to the app.

Bill Barhydt

After the app was released in the US, media reported that some users were unable to register through Facebook. This was indeed the case when the media tested the app.

Barhydt said the company's team will work on refining the issue and making sure the app is the one that was tested in the Philippines.

At the same time, Citi Research, the research arm of Citigroup, also released a research report stating that Abra's business model is something the financial industry should pay close attention to.