Uruguayan Bitcoin Startup Moneero To Accelerate Global Expansion with Special Focus on Asian Market

Moneero, a Latin American bitcoin startup which recently debuted its wallet services to an initial batch of users, is the developer of a bitcoin banking platform that offers safe access to financial services for the non-tech savvy audiences using mainstream social media and popular devices like feature phones, smartphones and ATMs.

Targeting at both developed and emerging markets, the Uruguay-headquarter startup have set up two subsidiaries for global expansion, one in the US and the other is in Hong Kong. “Our Hong Kong company is currently in the process of obtaining a license as a regulated Money Service Operator, which will allow us to roll out in Hong Kong and the Asian markets as one of the first regions, said Steven Morell, chief product officer of the company.

Aiming to transform the SMS network into global payment system, Moneero’s SMS texting services allow users to transfer bitcoin from and to any phone number worldwide. Moneero goes beyond SMS texting and its bitcoin banking platform can easily be connected to any social network channels, turning social media platforms into Bitcoin wallets. It has implemented Facebook and Twitter in western market.

To localize the service in Chinese market, Moneero is currently working on implementations of popular local platforms like Renren and Weibo. The same goes for devices: Moneero can be accessed over web and smartphones, but also over simple GSM phones or devices like ATMs and POS Terminals, which are developed with the help of Chinese partner companies.

Moneero just announced that Rodrigo Benzaquen was appointed as the company’s board of directors. Rodrigo was one of the first employees at Latin America’s leading auction site MercadoLibre, where he was first responsible for site infrastructure and data center strategy, NOC/SOC, Infosec, Network Security, HelpDesk and CloudBuilders until he was promoted to Director of R&D in 2011. He currently works with Kaszek Ventures, an active venture capital fund in Latin America.

image credit: Moneero