By
Bhushan Akolkar
October 25th, 2023
A blockchain startup R3 CEV is going to raise $150 million in its first funding round and some of its original members have already expressed their intention to invest.
Most of R3 CEV’s member banks have expressed interest in investing $59 million in the startup’s first financing round, Reuters reported on Friday. The company is going to collect $150 million from its members and other investors to continue developing blockchain technology for the financial industry.
Initially, the blockchain consortium R3 CEV intended to raise $200 million in exchange for 90% equity in the company, but later changed the deal to $150 million in exchange for a 60% stake. The company plans to collect the total amount within the next 12 months.
Last week, R3 CEV said that Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Banco Santander SA decided to leave the consortium as they didn’t agree with the terms of the funding agreement. Later, another bank, Morgan Stanley, also revealed its plans to exit the group.
Meantime, other banks, such as JP Morgan Chase & Co and Australia’s Macquarie bank, declined to join the fundraising round but chose to remain the members of the blockchain consortium R3 CEV to take part in creating distributed ledger solutions.
R3 CEV invited 42 original member companies to provide financing and will invite other banks and external companies. Of all the original members, 36 said they are interested in the investment, with stakes ranging from $3.5 million to $1 million each.
While some banks decide to exit the consortium, others are joining the consortium. In November, one of the largest Dutch banks, ABN Amro, and the China Foreign Exchange Trade System became part of the group.
As R3 CEV announced on Friday, its Corda platform will be open-sourced on November 30. Unveiled in August, the platform was designed to improve financial services infrastructure and digitize such processes as registry and settlement of assets.
“What we’ll release on November 30 is pretty much the full codebase as it exists today and we will be improving it actively and openly from then on,” the company said.
R3 CEV will also publish a draft of the technical whitepaper which outlines the ccompany’s roadmap to version 1.0 of Corda and production-readiness.
Since its launch in 2015, R3 CEV has gained support of the globe’s leading banks, including Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC, and UBS Group. It currently includes a total of 70 members.
Earlier this month, the blockchain consortium R3 CEV partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to use the distributed ledger technology for a new project that will facilitate interbank payments. The initiative will involve the country’s stock exchange and eight local and foreign banks.
