Zabo co-founders Alex Treece and Christopher Brown will be presenting this week at Venture Summit West 2019, putting the spotlight on its banking product that allows you to get paid in Bitcoin by allocating your pay between cash and cryptocurrency.

Zabo plans to launch its fully digital bank—which will provide access to traditional checking, savings, lending, and cryptocurrency all in one—later this year.

Alex Treece [Photo: Michael Samples]

Dallas-Fort Worth-based Zabo was co-founded by the ‘three amigos’: Brown, CEO; Treece, president; and William Dias, CTO, who operates out of Toronto. In addition to Zabo, the trio runs Modular Banking, a provider of digital asset services to the banking sector.

“We are hoping to connect directly with venture capital firms as we look ahead to additional rounds of funding in the future,” Treece told Dallas Innovates. “We are also wanting to generate awareness about our product, what is unique about it, and where we fit into the broader ecosystem.”

Zabo got $1.15M in seed funding last year

About a year ago, Zabo announced it had raised a $1.15 million seed investment from New York-based Blockchange Ventures. The funding went toward creating the app, supporting Bitcoin and Ether, and allowing users to have crypto combined with their bank accounts.

Christopher Brown [Photo: Skyler Fike]

“To date, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort around building our core technology,” Treece says. “There is a lot that goes into any financial product, and especially one involving cryptocurrency/blockchain technology.”

Right now, Treece says the startup is primarily focused on four main components:

• Finalizing a partnership with a licensed banking partner, which is predicted to be announced in the next few months;
• Planning for the next round of funding;
• Finalizing product design and development in anticipation for this year’s Q3 launch; and
• Marketing and generating early access wait list signups for the product.

Zabo’s licensed banking partner will provide FDIC-insured U.S. dollar bank accounts and be governed and compliant with applicable federal and state money transmission laws and regulations.

Meeting VC teams, other startups face-to-face

Venture Summit West, hosted by Blockchain Exchange Guide in San Francisco, is one of the top Bitcoin events of the year. As a gathering place for VCs, startups, and tech professionals, the summit will feature discussions on the newest technologies and the latest trends shaping the future. Attendees include over 100 venture capitalists with more than $60 billion in management.

Treece says that among the important things he and Brown hope to achieve, getting face-to-face time with venture capital teams and other startups is crucial. “Some we’ve communicated [with] electronically, but it’s super helpful to connect in person and establish those bonds,” he says.

Brown and Treece will be presenting Wednesday and Thursday.

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