Bitwage announced today the closure of a funding round with $760,000 led by France’s largest telecommunications company, Orange, as well as Tim Draper’s Draper Associates. In addition, Halsey Minor’s Cloud Money Ventures, Max Keiser’s Bitcoin Capital, Saeed Amidi, and BnkToTheFuture have also participated.

Jonathan Chester, Founder and CSO at BitWage, commented:

“We are more than excited to have the support of influential companies and individuals, such as Orange and Tim Draper. Our success can be attributed to our impressive growth, with over $1.7m in transactions since last November and our loyal customers who love what we have built.”

According to the information from Bitwage, they now plan to expand their work in Europe with bitcoin payroll and international payroll solutions. The service allows employees to receive their wages or buy goods with bitcoin without their employer or clients needing to sign up to Bitwage. Thus, it reduces payroll costs, especially for unbanked employees, while increasing transfer speeds and transparency.

“Over time, we have managed to create an international payroll system that is faster and cheaper than the banks, paying employees in Europe, Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and more,” said Chester.

Online Investment Platform BnkToTheFuture has also participated in the funding round. We asked Simon Dixon, CEO of BnkToTheFuture.com and Fund Manager at Bitcoin Capital, about the decision to invest in Bitwage.

“I have often wondered why people still get paid monthly even though we work nearly everyday or how Google pays millions of affiliates around the world in different currencies or the best way to pay our staff in countries with currencies that are harder to acquire without paying huge fees to firms like Western Union. Bitcoin has the potential to solve these problems and Bitwage launched to help companies pay their global workforce faster, with cheaper fees, while making it possible to get paid in real time rather than waiting for the typical end of the month paycheck,” said Dixon.

He continued: