Circle Internet Financial Ltd. has announced that it has already raised raised $60 million in new funding from China-based investors. The company also unveiled a dedicated domestic subsidiary, Circle China.

Major Chinese investors that help Circle include IDG Capital Partners, Baidu, CICC Alpha, EverBright Investments, WangXiang, and CreditEase, and Breyer Capital and General Catalyst Partners are participating in the deal as well.

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In addition, former IBM Corp. chief executive Sam Palmisano and Glenn Hutchins, the co-founder of venture investment company Silver Lake, have made personal investments in Circle.

The Boston company Circle was founded in 2013 and uses the digital currency bitcoin to manage worldwide money transfers that can be accompanied by emojis or GIFs. It allows United States and the United Kingdom users to send money free of charge from a computer or smartphone to people anywhere in the world.

Circle’s system converts U.S. dollars or British pounds into computer-generated bitcoins, and transfers the money electronically to a recipient’s e-mail address or phone number. The receiver can get paid in dollars, pounds, or bitcoins.

In addition, Circle will also launch a branch in China that will be an independent company with local investors and targeti the Chinese money transfer market. Circle China will compete against Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alipay.

Once Circle gets approval from financial institutions, it may have an edge with its ability to easily convert local payments to international currencies.

“In China there’s already incredible domestic companies -- Tencent and Alipay," Circle founder and chief executive officer Jeremy Allaire said. "We don’t have any belief that we can come in and dethrone those products, but there’s an opportunity for Chinese consumers that want to share value globally with friends in other parts of the world.” 

Furthermore, Allaire stated that the Chinese market is ready for expansion because people in that country have been using smartphones for money transfers.

Baidu’s investment is the latest in a series by the search company as it tries to diversify. Its investment in Circle gives the company a stronger foothold in the payment field in China, which is dominated by Tencent Wechat and Alipay.

In 2015, Boston-based Circle has also raised $50 million in a funding round co-led by the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and IDG Capital.

Circle service is available through a browser or mobile apps both for iOS and Android.

TagsCircle, Circle Internet Financial Ltd., Baidu, Tencent, Alipay, bitcoin, online payment, bitcoin payment, Digital Currency, IDG Capital, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., china, Circle China