Utah-based bitcoin miner raises $13 million to become the world's biggest tech company

Utah-based bitcoin miner KnCMiner has raised $13 million to become the world's largest tech company. The round was led by Chinese investment firm 21 Inc., with participation from Bitcoin Opportunity Corp. There are also angel investors like Justin Calebeck and Danny Hillis.

KnCMiner previously raised $4 million in a seed round led by Draper Associates in February 2016, and this new funding brings the total to $15 million. The company plans to use the money to build a larger mining farm in Iceland and grow its workforce from 30 to 100 over the next six months.

Peter Vessenes, CEO of Bitcoin Opportunity Corp., which backed KnCMiner's recent funding round, said, It shows that even a small team of engineers and entrepreneurs can tackle this big challenge. I was able to do it, he said. “Our goal is to encourage further innovation in this area so that it can be introduced to the mass market sooner.”

The company plans to use some of the new capital for further quantum computing research and to hire additional employees at its Utah headquarters.