Bitcoin start-up Unocoin's API to boost Indian cryptocurrency market

Unocoin, a bitcoin company from India, on Monday announced that it has implemented its first-ever application programming interface (API) allowing companies from around the world to access the world's largest potential market for Bitcoin and to take advantage of Unocoin's set of features.

Unocoin's API allows individuals and companies in India to generate bitcoin wallets; buy, sell, send and receive bitcoin; securely store bitcoin; retrieve real-time or historical price information; receive notifications when payments arrive; accept and request bitcoin payments for merchants; as well as allow companies around the world to remit bitcoin to India and to submit know your customer details of beneficiaries.

Unocoin co-founder and CEO Sathvik Vishwanath said, "We've been excited to develop a robust API for use by companies around the world. Our API is best described as an on-ramp for firms looking for a simple way to gain entry into one of the world's fastest growing and largest potential markets. Our team has been working non-stop prior to and during our Pre-Series A round to provide the most reliable, full-featured API, but one that, most importantly, is incredibly easy to adopt."

Unocoin recently raised $1.5 million to support its growth. The company now has more than 30 employees on staff servicing over 100,000 users. The Unocoin API has concluded rigorous testing and is already in active use by its largest customer, which is Unocoin itself, said the company in a press release.

The company's full-featured iOS app and soon-to-be-released Android app are both built entirely off of the Unocoin API. Moreover, the Unocoin API has become instrumental in the day-to-day functionality of businesses like Paycase, a Canadian remittance innovator making overseas transactions much faster and more cost efficient.

"Our API is the engine powering our mobile apps, through which customers will be able to store and spend bitcoin on the go, and also be able to buy bitcoin with just a click of a button," said Vishwanath.

India is the remittance capital of the world, as well as the largest gold and IT market. While blockchain and bitcoin adoption climbs exponentially, businesses and individuals need the appropriate financial infrastructure to process secure transactions. The Unocoin API can plug right into any company, anywhere in the world, to assist them in gaining access to the Indian bitcoin market and remittance industry, potentially worth an estimated $100 billion.

Blockstream, pioneers in cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, which developed sidechains to help users move digital assets from one blockchain to another, partnered with Unocoin to enable fast and low cost cross-border transactions. Paycase, a mobile-first remittance application, is now using the Unocoin API and Blockstream's Liquid network to carry out frictionless money transfers from Canada to India.

"India represents a massive growth opportunity for Bitcoin and Unocoin is on the cutting edge of Bitcoin and blockchain technology," said Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, adding, "We're excited to be working with Unocoin on Liquid and believe the company has the potential to bring Bitcoin to millions of new users based on their technology vision and business execution."

Paycase's protocol-agnostic transfer routing system has already been tested in nearly 20 countries around the world, using a sophisticated trading algorithm to route payments over a variety of cryptocurrency rails with far greater efficiency as compared to the traditional SWIFT network. During a six-month beta, Paycase successfully completed $50,000 worth of micro-transactions from Canada to the Philippines, with costs averaging 60-80 per cent lower than traditional remittance players.

Paycase Co-founder and CEO Joseph Weinberg said, "Our work with Unocoin shows both company's long-term dedication to one another, in strategically partnering to take bitcoin and Blockchain powered remittances and cross-border transfer to the mass market. We have worked together from Canada and India to establish the technical, regulatory, and business logic needed to enable Canadian dollar to Indian rupee money transfer with bitcoin efficiencies in place. With the API, experience, and infrastructure in place, we can now scale this model beyond our current corridors and into the promising Indian market."

Unocoin's Pre Series A round was led by Blume Ventures with participation from Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, Bitcoin Capital, FundersClub, and Indian investors Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures.