By
Andy Watson
April 26th, 2024
Backed by Google and Virgin’s Richard Branson, Blockchain.com is looking to raise $50 million as it plans to begin investing in startups. Blockchain which is already one of the most widely used wallet services, is interested in equity and crypto coins.
Luxembourg based cryptocurrency wallet and data provider, Blockchain, is currently meeting with investors, as it plans to raise $50 million to invest in several related startups. According to reports, the generated funds would be used to fund the sector through equity as well as crypto coins.
The company which is backed by Google as well as Virgin founder Richard Branson, was founded in 2011 and has grown to be arguably one of the most patronized crypto wallet services in the sector, with its users numbering over 40 million. With more than $200 billion settled in transactions, Blockchain prides itself as being the cheapest wallet providers in the sector.
Branson backed the company with an investment back in 2017, the same year Blockchain opened its London office. So far, the company has raised more than $70 million from all of its fundraising efforts which apart from Google and Virgin, also include Lakestar, a venture capital firm based in Europe.
Further reports have it that the company’s campaign efforts to raise the funds will be headed by Samuel Harrison who joined Blockchain back in July last year, after leaving his position as an executive of investment firm, Nasper Ventures. Harrison’s LinkedIn page suggests that the fund is already live and has begun investing in a few firms such as Nodle. Coindirect, Silver.tv and Origin Protocol.
Blockchain has been criticized in the past for its heavy focus on Bitcoin. A few months ago, however, it launched its own cryptocurrency exchange platform called The Pit with a plan to support 26 different trading pairs, in the first phase. The firm also announced that it was seeking to set itself apart and improve on the sector by significantly cutting down on any downtime currently associated with crypto trading.
At the time, Blockchain CEO Peter Smith, said the plan is for The Pit to comfortably process all transactions in a maximum of 50 microseconds. Pulling this off would mean that the Pit would have a speed much better than currently available in the market.
The Pit already boasts of major execs who have experience with some of the world’s top firms including Goldman Sachs, Google, TD Ameritrade, and the New York Stock Exchange. Blockchain also boasts of former Barclays CEO, Antony Jenkins, as a board member.
Just like Google and Microsoft, Blockchain is joining a growing list of tech firms which are quite interested in floating their own venture capital projects, as a way to invest in and nurture several other related startups.
Back in January, Smith revealed that Blockchain was in talks with a stablecoin company and could announce an official partnership before the end of the year. Speaking on stablecoins, Smith said:
“I think all major stablecoin projects at the moment believe they need us. The question is which one do we decide that we need?”
Even though there’s no official statement, there are speculations that the stablecoin being considered by Blockchain is the Paxos Standard (PAX). If this comes through, PAX could possibly be the first stable coin to be listed on the Pit.