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37Coins

A startup that provided SMS bitcoin wallet service for unbanked and unteched in developing economies without internet access.

Categories

Banking, Bitcoin, Finance,

Product Gallery

Reasons for Shutdown

Poor Product-Market Fit

Could not find the right product-market fit overseas

In a blog post, the company said that they were "unable to deliver a quality product that showed product-market fit".
They also found that while their business plan revolved around SMS delivery for bitcoin transactions, the service between different carriers in countries outside the USA was unreliable, and this halted their progress to expand.

Poor Product

The aim was to provide bitcoin services overseas via SMS, but the company realised that because of the overseas networks, this wasn't possible

The company found that there wasn't a reliable SMS delivery mechanism between carriers outside of their HQ in the United States.
This made it essentially difficult to deliver a quality product.
The company’s effort to provide Bitcoin transfer technologies across different regions has proved to be nearly impossible.

Lack of Funds

The company didn't have enough funds to reach their objective

In the same blog post, the company said that their goal "couldn't be possible to achieve with the amount of capital raised".

Strong Competition

New Bitcoin banking started emerging since 37coins started

Companies such as Zebpay, Coins.ph and BitGive essentially provided the same service.
The difference was that these companies operated in the countries they were based in, or in their local regions.

Direct Competitors and Similar Companies

Note: Direct competitors are defined by similarity score of more than 40%, while similar companies are defined by similarity score of less than 40%

No.	Name	Similarity score	Description	Industry	Categories	Location	Ownership status	Entity type	Stage of development	Transactional model type	Defensibility moats	Last financing round	Total raised	Post-money valuation	Last financing date	No. of funding round(s)	No. of investors	Investors	Total revenue	Market capitalization	No. of investments	No. of acquisitions	No. of board seats taken	Competition	Management	No. of employees	Company reputation	Contact info	Operational status	Operational duration	Shutdown date	Founded date	Legal name	Former legal name(s)	Ticker
1.	HSBC Brunei	26.4%	A subsidiary of the global banking corporation HSBC Group.	Financial Services	Banking, Finance, Commercial, Credit Card Related	Brunei Darussalam	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	250-500	-	-	Inactive	-	-	1947	-	-	-
2.	BitPass	24.0%	An online payment system for digital content and services.	Financial Services	Bitcoin, Payments, Internet	United States	-	-	-	-	-	Early Stage	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	50-100	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2002	-	-	-
3.	LoanMeet	22.2%	A Peer To Peer P2P lending marketplace.	Financial Services	P2P, Personal Finance, Finance	India	-	-	-	-	-	Seed	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1-10	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2015	-	-	-
4.	Wesabe	14.8%	Personal finance management website designed to help users manage their daily finance.	Financial Services	Finance, Personal Finance, FinTech	United States	-	-	-	-	-	Early Stage	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10-50	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2005	-	-	-
5.	Wonga	14.8%	An online payday lender that offered short-term personal cash loans to UK consumers.	Financial Services	Finance, Financial Services, FinTech, Risk Management	United Kingdom	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	501-1000	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2006	-	-	-
6.	Aditya Birla Payments Bank Limited (ABPB)	10.5%	A payments bank.	Financial Services	Banking, Finance, Payments	India	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	250-500	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2016	-	-	-
7.	Puddle	9.4%	An online lender that provided micro-credit in a peer-to-peer platform.	Financial Services	Social Media, Finance, Internet	United States	-	-	-	-	-	Seed	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10-50	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2012	-	-	-
8.	Comunitae	8.6%	The pioneer platform to offer individuals a new way to save more profitably than traditional financial products.	Financial Services	P2P, FinTech, Finance	Spain	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1-10	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2008	-	-	-
9.	Loot	8.6%	A banking and money management app for students.	Financial Services	FinTech, Payments, Finance, Personal Finance, Applications	United Kingdom	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10-50	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2014	-	-	-
10.	Finomena	6.4%	A FinTech startup providing young working professionals access to credit to buy gadgets and electronics.	Financial Services	Finance, Professional Services, FinTech	India	-	-	-	-	-	Seed	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10-50	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2015	-	-	-
11.	Smartly	6.4%	A robo-advisor that provided a digital wealth management platform to retail investors.	Financial Services	Automation, Investment Advisory, Finance, FinTech	Singapore	-	-	-	-	-	M&A	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10-50	-	-	Inactive	-	-	2015	-	-	-

Investors

No.	Image	Name	Investor type	Description	Location	Preferred investment stage(s)	Stages invested in	Assets under management (AUM)	Investment range	Investment sweet spot	Preferred investment focus	Preferred investment geography	No. of investments	No. of lead investments	No. of follow-on investments	No. of co-investments	Portfolio companies	No. of exits	Total exit value	No. of failed investments	Loss on investments	No. of acquisitions	No. of board seats taken	No. of funds	Limited partners	Co-investors	No. of partners	Partners	No. of employees	Management	Board members	Founders	Investor reputation	Contact info	Entity type	Legal name	Former legal name(s)	Founded date	Ticker
1.		500 Startups	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Leadership

No.	Name	Previous designation	Previous company	Previous biography	Previous profile type	Previous location	Experience	Education	Reputation	Current company	Current designation	Current biography	Current profile type	Current location	No. of investments	No. of exits	Total exit value	No. of board seats taken	Contact info
1.	Songyi Lee	Co-Founder	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	37coins	-	Co-Founder of 37coins.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2.	Jonathan Zobro	Co-Founder & Designer	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	37coins	-	Co-Founder of 37coins.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3.	Johann Barbie	Co-Founder & Developer	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	37coins	-	Co-Founder of 37coins.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Funding

No.	Financing date	Financing round	Total amount raised	Post-money valuation	Financial viability	Fundraising target amount	Remaining target amount	Financing type	No. of investors	Board seats	Lead investors	Entity type	Financing status
1.	1 Sep 2014	Venture Round	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
2.	1 Jun 2014	Seed Round	USD 500K	-	-			-	3	-	-	-	Completed
3.	15 Mar 2014	Seed Round	USD 25K	-	-			-	1	-	-	-	Completed