News Roundup — Blockchain Investments
New investments and joint ventures are announced daily in the ever-changing blockchain world. What’s the latest? We sum up recent funding developments below:
Blockchain startup ‘first in Asia’ to win traditional VC funding
Temco, a South Korean startup for blockchain-powered supply chain management, announced on 2 October that it was “the first blockchain company in Asia to secure funds from a traditional venture capital”. The company did not say how large an investment it was receiving from Korea Investment Partners (KIP), which is South Korea’s largest VC firm, but noted the funding “validates the appeal” of its business model. Temco is planning a $19m token sale, with pre-selling set to begin in November.
As ICOs lose appeal, VCs step up blockchain investments
While initial coin offerings (ICOs) have lost much of their appeal in recent months, blockchain companies are attracting more funding from traditional venture capital firms, according to a new report from
digital currency tracker Diar. “The majority of tokens have dropped in price by more than 90 per cent from their all-time highs,” Diar noted. However, it added, in the first three quarters of 2018, “blockchain and crypto companies have raised nearly [$]3.9bn through traditional VC — 280 per cent more when compared to last year”. The number of VC deals has also increased, as has the size of individual investments, Diar said.
ConsenSys invests $6.5m in financial services DLT startup
DrumG, a new venture developing distributed ledger technology for the financial services industry, announced 1 October that it has secured a $6.5m Series A minority investment from the blockchain firm ConsenSys. Joseph Lubin — Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys founder and CEO — who will serve on DrumG’s board of directors, said in a press statement that DrumG will be “a valuable part of the ConsenSys global financial services offering”. DrumG is working on two enterprise applications: the Titanium Network for investment bank trading and valuation operations, and an R3/Corda-based post-trade reconciliation network for hedge funds, prime brokers, fund administrators and auditors.
Dell EMC eyes new investments in blockchain, AI, analytics
Dell EMC is eyeing new investments in emerging technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and data analytics, according to a report by India’s Economic Times. Manish Gupta, a senior director and general manager with Dell EMC India, told the Economic Times: “The clients that we work with are looking to tap these technologies, which is why we are bringing in servers that allows them to optimise on traditional workloads as well as invest into new age workloads such as cloud, artificial intelligence, analytics and blockchain.”
BitFund founder says he’ll no longer invest in blockchain
Bitcoin billionaire and investor Li Xiaolai, who founded the VC firm BitFund in 2013, will no longer invest in blockchain ventures, according to a report by China-based TechNode. Citing its own translation, TechNode said Li posted on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo: “From this day on, Li Xiaolai personally will not invest in any projects (whether it is blockchain or early stage). So, if you see ‘Li Xiaolai’ associated with any project (I have been associated with countless projects without my knowledge, 99 per cent is not an exaggeration), just ignore it… I plan to spend several years to contemplate on my career change. As for what I’m doing next, I’m not sure just yet.”
Greenlight Re makes ‘strategic’ bet on PaaS for insurance industry
The Cayman Islands-based property and casualty reinsurance company Greenlight Re announced on 28 September that it has made a “strategic investment” in Hong Kong’s Galileo Platforms, a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) business founded in 2016. It’s the first investment by Greenlight Re Innovations, which was established in March 2018 to “seek technology and innovation opportunities relating to the reinsurance and insurance markets”. In a press statement, Galileo Platforms co-founders Annette King and Mark Wales said: “We share a common vision that blockchain technology can transform the insurance industry, by enabling more agile product design, making transactions more transparent, and enabling real-time transactions amongst all the parties.”
