BitPay, which secured a deal with blog publisher WordPress in November, has seen volumes spike over the past year, processing $3 million worth of bitcoin payments in 2012.

The two-year old firm says it will use the funds to open a technology centre in Atlanta and hire additional employees. The company is currently staffed by its two founders Anthony Gallippi and Stephen Pair.

BitPay is pitching its gateway to businesses as a means of clamping down on card not present fraud.

"Identity theft affects 10 million victims per year, and payment fraud totals over $100 billion per year," states BitPay's Gallippi. "Bitcoin is an enabling technology, it is a global peer-to-peer payment network that will solve these problems and change the world. When businesses look at our service, they see the benefits are very compelling."

Seed investors backing the service include SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert, and Spotify investor Shakil Khan. Roger Ver, who has invested in a number of Bitcoin-connected ventures, paid his share of the funding in the digital currency.