News Roundup — Blockchain Investments
Where is the money for blockchain development coming from, and where’s it going? We take a look at some of the latest investment developments.
New fund eyes $100m for Israeli startups, with a focus on blockchain
Benson Oak, a European investment bank, has created a new fund focused on Israeli startups, especially those with consumer-facing and blockchain-related offerings. That’s according to a report by CTech, the tech reporting arm of the Israel-based financial daily Calcalist. With total funding planned to reach $100m by the end of 2018, the fund has so far won commitments for $25m in investment, CTech said. “The fund is looking for platforms, meaning companies that offer a business strategy, a product and a community,” managing partner Robert Cohen told Calcalist, offering Israel-based Fiverr as an example. “For me, blockchain and web 3.0 are such domains.”
Linux Foundation: 22 new members invest in open-source efforts
The latest group of new members to join the open-source, non-profit Linux Foundation includes several organisations working to promote blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. Among the foundation’s new Silver members are Circulor, which is using blockchain for the electric vehicle supply chain; Estateably, which aims to optimise estate settlements through distributed ledger technology; KR8OS, which is working to track advertising events with blockchain-based marketing analytics; and the blockchain development and promotion company Zhejiang Blockchain Technology. In all, the Linux Foundation announced on 30 July the addition of 17 new Silver members and five Associate members that will help support the organisation’s open-source technology development.
New Coinsquare subsidiary focuses on blockchain and AI investments
The Canada-based cryptocurrency trading platform Coinsquare announced on 30 July the launch of a new subsidiary, Coin Capital Investment Management Inc. Registered by the Ontario Securities Commission as an exempt market dealer, investment fund manager and portfolio manager, Coin Capital Investment Management will offer “a suite of investment products focused on emerging technologies including blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrencies,” Coinsquare said. The new subsidiary also has plans to launch two indices — one focused on blockchain, the other on AI and biotech — in partnership with Deutsche Boerse Group’s STOXX. The AI-focused iSTOXX Developed Markets B.R.AI.N. Index went live on 26 July.
Cred mobile app enables cryptocurrency micro-investments
Cred, a startup based in California, rolled out its mobile app for cryptocurrency micro-investing on 31 July. Available for both iOS and Android devices, the Cred app lets users make small investments in a variety of cryptocurrencies by rounding up the amounts they spend on everyday purchases or specifying recurring transactions on a weekly or monthly basis. For example, a user could specify that daily purchases are rounded up to the nearest $1, $2 or $5 amounts, with the rounded-up balances going into an investment queue; once the queue total reaches the $10 minimum investment, that money is automatically invested in the cryptocurrency of the user’s choice. Users can also choose to make one-time investments at any time. As of the end of July, Cred had 13 cryptocurrency partners: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, EOS, Ethereum, Komodo, Litecoin, Monero, Neblio, Ripple, Stellar, Wax and ZenCash. The company said its mission is to “democratise consumer access to cryptocurrency”.
2018 US fintech investments in blockchain surge past 2017 totals
From the second half of 2017 to the first half of 2018, fintech investment in the US rose from $12.2bn across 371 deals to a total of $14.2bn for 427 deals, according to the latest ‘Pulse of Fintech’ report from KPMG. Released on 31 July, the report added that investments in blockchain during the first six months of this year have already exceeded the total amount invested in all of 2017: $858m, versus $631m. “Blockchain has the potential to transform banking services,” KPMG’s Safwan Zaheer said in a news announcement about the report. “If banking systems were to be rewritten today they would be based on blockchain.” According to the report large fintech deals in the US during Q1 and Q2 2018 crossed a wide-range of subsectors — from blockchain (R3, Circle Internet) and cryptocurrencies (Basis) to insurtech (Lemonade, Oscar) and wealth management (Robinhood).
Despite rising blockchain spending, some in US foresee investment slowdown
While a large number of the world’s largest public corporations have been actively investing in blockchain projects, new research suggests their “love affair with all things blockchain may be cooling,” Bloomberg reported on 31 July. Citing Forrester Research, the publication said some companies are winding down or scaling back their blockchain projects and pilots, and added that in “90 per cent of cases, the experiments will never become part of a company’s operations, the firm estimates”. If such predictions become reality, Bloomberg noted, the results could hit firms like IBM and Microsoft — which currently take in more than half of the total US spending on blockchain products and services — especially hard.
