BitPay, Toshiba Bring Bitcoin to the Point of Sale

BitPay will partner with Toshiba to support Bitcoin digital currency acceptance at the physical point of sale through Toshiba's VisualTouch software.

The partnership allows retailers using the VisualTouch point of sale system to handle digital currency, BitPay states in a May 15 press release.

VisualTouch is most common in the hospitality, food service, grocery, retail and concession industries with more than 6,000 customers that have as many as 1,600 locations each, BitPay says.

“This partnership greatly expands the number of businesses that will now be able to accept Bitcoin," says Tony Gallippi, executive chairman of BitPay, in the release.

Merchants using the VisualTouch point of sale system will attract "an extremely loyal customer base" that goes out of its way to support companies that accept Bitcoin, Gallippi adds.

The agreement with Toshiba comes two days after BitPay announced it had secured $30 million in venture capital funding.

That round of funding represents a groundswell of support since the startup landed $2 million in seed capital in May of 2013 from investment groups that included Luke Nosek, a co-founder of PayPal.

Atlanta-based BitPay says it has more than 3,000 clients, including TigerDirect, the NBA's Sacramento Kings, WorldPress, Virgin Galactic, Shopify and Gyft.

The company has established a reputation for working with all types of merchants, including those generally considered high-risk by the credit card companies.