If entrepreneur Sebastian Serrano has his way, Argentines will be bitcoin-spending pioneers. He hopes hotels and hostels in the South-American country will bill their customers with his electronic-payment company BitPagos Inc. to bypass the country's troubled currency and accept payments in bitcoins or dollars.

On Tuesday, the startup announced it had raised a seed round of $600,000 led by Pantera Capital, Tim Draper, Barry Silbert, Boost Bitcoin Fund, Amasia and others.

With the new funding, BitPagos plans to hire more employees in its Argentina office to focus on sales and creating marketing content to attract more clients.

BitPagos charges a 5% fee to process credit card transactions, and it handles bitcoin for free. In May, the company processed $150,000 in bitcoin payments.

The company is now split between Palo Alto, Calif., and Buenos Aires. Last year the company graduated from the Boost VC accelerator program in San Mateo, Calif. that has focused on virtual-currency startups. Mr. Serrano and his two co-founders are focusing on the hotel and travel industry for now, but ultimately they hope to process payments for any industry.