BitPay Lands Ex-PayPal Talent For Business Solutions Unit

B2B cryptocurrency payments company BitPay announced this week that Rolf Haag is joining the company to lead its business solutions unit.

In a press release, BitPay said Haag will spearhead the company’s B2B and mass payments operations. He comes to BitPay after working for both Western Union as its former director of global mass payments, and PayPal as its former head of mass payment global disbursements.

In a statement, Haag said he sees “striking similarities in early PayPal adoption and BitPay adoption, especially among businesses paying their global suppliers.

“Bitcoin is groundbreaking for global B2B and mass payments, because it’s cheaper, quicker and more transparent than bank wires or PayPal,” he continued. “BitPay compliantly delivers these benefits while eliminating bitcoin price risk.”

In another statement, BitPay CEO and Co-founder Stephen Pair said the firm’s B2B payments offering is its “fastest-growing product and just had its highest sales month ever in October.

“Rolf’s background is an asset to BitPay and will help us accelerate the success of our B2B and mass payments businesses globally,” he said.

The appointment of Haag follows a $40 million funding round closed last April. The extended Series B round was led by Menlo Ventures, Capital Nine, G Squared, Nimble Ventures and Delta-v Capital, as well as individual investors.

“Our goals include key hires in engineering and regulatory licensing, as well as expansion into emerging markets in Asia – one of BitPay’s fastest-growing regions for transactions and wallet adoptions,” Pair said at the time.

In August, U.S. television provider Dish announced it would begin accepting payments from customers in Bitcoin Cash, the result of a partnership with BitPay and a reflection of the company’s presence in the consumer payments market in addition to B2B payments. According to CEO John Swieringa, Dish receives “a steady volume of customers paying with cryptocurrency each month.”