OpenCoin announced that it has closed an additional round of angel funding from highly regarded investors Google Ventures and China-based IDG Capital Partners.
"The OpenCoin team has an incredible track record and presents a compelling vision for the future of money," said Feng Li of IDG Capital Partners. "We are excited about the prospect for a global payments system that powers instant, free, and secure transactions in any currency."
OpenCoin is the company developing the Ripple protocol, an open source payments system and a math-based virtual currency that together power the world's first distributed currency exchange. Ripple enables fast, secure and essentially free transactions of any size, in any currency, anywhere in the world, with no chargebacks for merchants.
"Ripple will change the way money moves, removing many of the costs and delays we accept as normal today," said OpenCoin CEO Chris Larsen. "With Ripple, sending money to anyone, anywhere in the world will be as easy as sending an email."
Ripple works by building direct pathways between parties for faster transactions with no added fees. As a distributed multi-currency exchange, Ripple pathways allow users to pay in one currency and receive payment in another, including dollars, yen, euros or even bitcoins. The Ripple payment system can be used for a wide range of applications, including merchant payments, money transfers, or remittances.