Thursday, April 3, 2014

BloomNation: Bitcoin Opens New Market, Transactions Larger

Los Angeles-based flower delivery site BloomNation--which helps connect consumers with local floral designers--has only been offering up payment via Bitcoin for a few months, but it's already finding that Bitcoin sales are 50 percent larger than traditional credit card sales--plus it allows the company to tap into a niche market it normally wouldn't have been able to tap into. The startup, lets consumers order flowers from local florists and designers, instead of generic mass marketers, and is one of the companies out of MuckerLab. BloomNation other backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, Chicago Ventures, and CrunchFund. Despite some ups and downs in the Bitcoin market, there have been a number of Southern California companies looking to tap into the interest in the all-electronic currency, including GoCoin, which is enabling BitCoin payments for e-commerce retailers; Virgin Galactic, which is letting customers buy a ride into space using Bitcoin; and CheapAir.com, which is letting users buy airline tickets using Bitcoin.

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