American Express and the Indian company Tata Sons invest in Bitcoin remittance Abra which has the ambition to help people store and transfer money using only their mobile phones.

The investment comes along with the announcement that Abra is about to launch its services in the US and Philippines.

The idea behind Abra includes storing one's money on a smartphone and sending them to any number across the globe. Digital money can be then exchanged for cash either in a conventional bank or via the network of Abra's tellers. A map of tellers available nearby is also provided by the app. If a teller decides to impose a fee, part of this fee will go to Abra. There is no limit to the fee, for the creators of Abra believe that, if the fee imposed is too high, users would naturally prefer another teller.

The technology used for such transactions is an index of phone numbers associated with public addresses on the bitcoin blockchain. If a recipient does not have the Abra app, they will receive an instant text message suggesting to install it.

Abra has also developed its Merchant API for the application, allowing sellers to receive payment from customers simply typing in their mobile numbers. However a scheme of fraud prevention for such payments is still to be considered.

Earlier this autumn Abra attracted more than $14 million from Arbor Ventures, RRE Ventures and First Round Capital.

Investing into Abra, American Express and Ratan Tata join the club of the financial giants, such as Nasdaq, Visa and Goldman Sachs, who have already put their money into blockchain initiatives.

Maria Rudina