SINGAPORE - Tembusu Systems, the creator of Singapore's first bitcoin ATM machine, has secured $1.2 million in bridge funding to develop a system using cryptocurrency technology.

This latest capital injection values the company at some $11 million, and also includes a "million-dollar vote of confidence" from an Singapore-listed company, Tembusu said in a press release on Thursday (Jan 29). It did not name the investor.

The funding comes as governments and companies are seriously exploring various levels of cryptocurrency adoption.

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that uses encryption techniques for security and anti-counterfeiting measures.

Tembusu's TRUST platform will make the technology behind cryptocurrency available to organisations and individuals.

While not a cryptocurrency in itself, TRUST's technology allows banks, governments and corporations to launch their own asset-backed cryptocurrencies, which will likely be much more stable than bitcoin, Tembusu said. Bitcoin has seen wild price fluctuations and is worth just 25 per cent of what it was 12 months ago.

In Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has allowed cryptocurrency to be used with some regulation. But a number of other countries have banned bitcoin outright, because of price stability and anonymity issues, which Tembusu's TRUST platform can address, it said.

gleong@sph.com.sg