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Founded in March, Zurich’s Centi Ltd. announced on Aug. 18 the closing of its first funding round. Bernhard Müller, who serves as the company’s chairman, launched the Bitcoin SV payments processor Centi as a technology that could adapt point-of-sale systems to accept these types of payments during retail transactions. Dr. Jürg Conzett, founder of Zurich’s Money Museum and the Sunflower Foundation, and Calvin Ayre, founder of the Ayre Group and CoinGeek.com, headlined Centi’s first funding round.

“I feel privileged to work with two such experienced investors on creating the digital cash register of the 21st century,” Müller said in a press release. “At this stage, expertise and business connections are just as important as the investment money. It humbles me to be able to work with top-tier business professionals who recognize the commercial value of our ideas and placed their trust in Centi to realize and extend our vision.”

Rather than requiring retailers to overhaul their systems to conduct transactions, Centi integrates with an existing POS infrastructure to afford the ability to accept BSV payments. According to Centi, adding the technology requires no additional hardware nor training and will accept BSV payments while paying merchants in their local currencies. For use only with BSV, Centi incurs fees as low as 1/100 of a cent in USD.

“In the digital-currency space, we need to reframe thinking so that value is derived from real utility. Centi’s technology offers a breakthrough solution for the easy adoption of Bitcoin SV by merchants,” Ayre said in a statement. “The innovative technology developed by Centi coupled with a blockchain that can scale makes for an exciting combination, one that I’m confident will prove a pivotal step in Bitcoin SV’s evolution as the digital currency of choice.”

Centi closed its seed round in July and received regulatory clearance through its August admittance into the Switzerland-based compliance-services self-regulatory organization Financial Services Standards Association (VQF), exhibiting its commitment to thwarting money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The company intends to work initially with merchants conducting online transactions, eventually expanding to retailers based in Switzerland.

“I have invested in Centi because of the excellence and commitment of the founder, the scaling ability of BSV and the wish to support a commercial bitcoin product,” Conzett said. “Centi is well prepared to take advantage of combining blockchain with an efficient, low-cost payment system. Further, it has the potential to add features no other payment system has today.”