Abra, a remittance service built on top of the Blockchain, has closed $12 million in Series A funding. Investors in the round include Arbor Ventures, RRE Ventures, and First Round Capital. Total funding to date by the company now totals $14 million. The company’s app, which will launch soon to the general public, lets users around the world transfer funds denominated in any currency at a cost-effective rate. Abra achieves this by instantly converting deposited currency to bitcoin, which are stored locally on the user’s device. This means that unlike services like Venmo, the company never actually touches any funds, meaning it isn’t required to deal with the regulatory issues of transmitting money.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/10/abra-raises-12m-in-series-a-funding-for-its-bitcoin-based-remittance-service/