Trading Bitcoins isn’t as easy as people think. Onboarding users can take up to two weeks, as Julian Liniger, Relai’s CEO and co-founder explains. His Swiss Fintech startup is on a mission to empower everyone to invest in Bitcoin. Julian was an early cryptocurrency aficionado and the go-to person for his friends for anything crypto-related. This made him realize that there was no easy way for the average person to purchase Bitcoin - and that’s how Relai was born.
To empower Bitcoin investing, Relai offers an easy and user-friendly app. “Buy and sell Bitcoin directly from and to your bank account: no account, no registration, no deposit. Like a digital ATM.” explains the CEO. The convenience provided by the Relai app which takes the onboarding process away sets it apart on a competitive market. What also differentiates it is the privacy and security offered (the startup doesn’t know its customers). All these features enable the Swiss startup to take a 3% all-inclusive fee (1,8% for the startup, 1,2% broker) with every transaction.
Successful launch
In just three months, Julian Liniger and his co-founder, Adem Bilican, went from 0 lines of code in April to launching the first version of their app on July 1st of this year. So far, the app has been downloaded more than 1’000 times, generating 55 five-star reviews on Google Play Store and 35 on Apple’s App Store. More than CHF 40’000 have been invested by the users on the platform since its launch.
After this successful launch, Julian Liniger is now looking for investors to finance the growth of Relai. The startup is aiming for a financing round of CHF 200k. With the funds, the Fintech intends to perfect its product in terms of UX/UI and Bitcoin technology, then scale it. Employing a small team of professionals with backgrounds in blockchain & crypto assets, software engineering, banking & management consulting, the startup wants to start its European expansion at the beginning of 2021.
Startup Pitches
This is the closing article of our start-up pitch series. Until the summer break, Startupticker in collaboration with Swisspreneur introduced Swiss start-ups on the search for investors.
Image by Impact Hub Bern