Cryptocurrency makes it to Shark Tank, O'Leary accepts the challenge

Cryptocurrency makes it to Shark Tank, O’Leary accepts the challenge

An entrepreneur recently appeared before angel investors on the popular program Shark Tank, hoping to work a deal. The entrepreneur, Dmitri Love, was pitching a service that would allow users to purchase cryptocurrency with spare change. It may not seem like much on the surface, but those pennies add up over time. Love presented his idea and listened as each investor turned him down. Each investor except one. Kevin O’Leary liked the concept enough to put up some funds to see it move forward.

Love, a software engineer, explained to the investors how the idea came about. He said, “I thought, man, you know, anyone that’s trying to invest in cryptocurrency has to go through all these steps to try to figure out how to buy it. And I thought there could be an easier way for it to be done.”

And, as Love has shown, there is. He created Bundil to give individuals the ability to purchase crypto by rounding up credit or debit card purchases to the nearest dollar—if the purchase is for a total of $9.95, an additional $0.05 goes to buying Bitcoin BCH, or BTC, ETH and LTC, whichever currency the user chooses.

Bundil won’t hold any of the crypto; it will be channeled through Coinbase and the user’s wallet. However, in addition to the purchases, Bundil does provide a platform so that users can see how their portfolios are growing and to manage their holdings.

Love was hoping to attract $100,000 for a 10% share in the company. He listened as Lore Greiner backed out because she doesn’t believe in crypto, and then received a second rejection from Mark Cuban, who is already invested in a similar project. Daymond John believes that the market volatility makes any crypto investment an unwise decision and he also turned down the offer, as did Matt Higgins, the CEO of RSE Ventures, who appeared on the show as a guest judge.

O’Leary, however, agreed to make a deal. In his typical fashion when he decides to back a project, he was determined to set the terms. Instead of $100,000 for 10% of the company, he offered the same amount for 50%. With his back against the wall and no other offers on the table, Love, somewhat disheartened, accepted and the rest, as they say, will soon be history.

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