Korean Web Giant Kakao Invests in Satoshi Citadel

Satoshi Citadel has raised seed funding from KVG, which is the venture capital arm of Korean web giant Kakao. According to the Bitcoin company, this is a strategic partnership that could bring its “innovative solutions” to Kakao’s 100 millions users.

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Kakao is Big in South Korea

Kakao is a household name in South Korea, as this web giant has a mobile app with over 100 million active users. This particular app lets users make free calls and send text messages, as long as they have an internet connection. Moreover, there is an entire ecosystem built around KakaoTalk.

In a way, Kakao has created their own social environment. Users can access photo sharing and the social network KakaoStory. Additionally, there is also a gaming platform and a content publishing platform. But at the same time, the enterprise is looking to expand its global reach through some strategic investments.

Satoshi Citadel (sci.ph) presents one of those critical investments for Kakao, as the Philippine Bitcoin startup has seen its fair share of success. Since being launched in 2014, the company offers financial services to Filipinos without a bank account. By using the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin, anyone in the region can send and receive money at very cheap rates.

But there’s more to Satoshi Citadel, as the company launched a Bitcoin payment processor called Bitmarket. Moreover, they also offer Bitcoin debit cards, an exchange platform, and the Rebit remittance service. Especially this latter business model is interesting to note, considering how the Filipino remittance market is the third largest in the world.

Integrating Satoshi Citadel Services?

The success of Satoshi Citadel has caught the attention of Kakao. Keeping in mind how the Korean enterprise wants to make global investment through its KVG venture capital arm, venturing into the Bitcoin world could be a smart decision in establishing “synergies”with SCI’s “innovative” Bitcoin payments solution. 

KVG Principal Partner Scott Kwon explained the decision as follows:

One of the ‘most inconvenient’ sectors in Southeast Asia is the banking sector. SCI, using the power of Bitcoin and the blockchain technology, provides an innovative solution to the problems. KVG will support SCI through synergies with Kakao and its other business assets and connections with its network of global partners.

Not too many details regarding the seed funding deal between both parties were made available to the public. We do know KVG will be supporting Satoshi Citadel through synergies with Kakao and its other assets. This could indicate the company plans to bring Bitcoin support to its content creation or social network platforms.

What are your thoughts on this investment? Let us know in the comments below!

Source Tech In Asia

Images courtesy of Kakao, Satoshi Citadel, Shutterstock, thenextweb.com

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