BlockCypher, a block chain web services company, secured investments $3.1 million in a seed financing round.
California-based block chain web services startup, called BlockCypher, received $3.1 million in its first funding round.
The key investors included Tim Draper, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Foundation Capital, Fenox Venture Capital, Streamlined Ventures, Jerry Yang from AME Cloud Ventures and Upside Partnership.
Shawn Byers, known as Mrs. Brook Byers, and Jesse Draper, Tim Draper’s daughter, became the first women investors in the bitcoin industry.
Valley Girl Ventures CEO, Jesse Draper, said: “Investing in women entrepreneurs is the best way to increase the number of women in technology. When girls have women founders as role models, they become founders themselves. What BlockCypher is doing with blockchain technology will change the world: women must be involved.”
BlockCypher has also announced the launch of an open-source block explorer for digital currencies, including bitcoin, dogecoin, litecoin and BlockCypher Testnet. The block explorer allows users viewing data on addresses, blocks and transactions made with the use of cryptocurrency.
Established in 2014 by Matthieu Riou and Catheryne Nicholson, BlockCypher offers block chain web services for building and securing block chain applications. The company processes about half a million events each day.
Riou and Nicholson are both known as software developers with a long track record of creating large-scale software platforms.
“Most of the time in software you see improvements or iterations on existing frameworks but very seldom do you see brand new technology like block chains,” Nicholson said about the block chain technology.
BlockCypher has accelerated the process of bitcoin transaction processing to seconds with the addition of zero-confirmation confidence factor. At the same time, the signature product ensures high level of confidence.
“We think one of the most promising areas in Bitcoin is in the block chain technology layer; it’s where the greatest innovation is happening and it’s at the core of BlockCypher’s expertise,” said Charles Moldow, Foundation Capital General Partner.
CEO of remittance firm, entitled Palarin, Brian Gamido, chose BlockCypher due to its block chain services. “BlockCypher’s cloud approach allows teams to focus on application functionality rather than hosting Bitcoin infrastructure. I like their ability to quickly innovate and integrate cutting-edge block chain features into their solution,” he said.
TriplePoint Capital, Ben Narasin, CFO Yahoo! Ken Goldman, VoyLét Capital, Michael Liou, WSO2 CEO Sanjiva Weerawarana, Boost VC, Crypto Currency Partners, Granite Ventures, Michael Liou, American rapper Nas and Angel investor Michael Liou were among the other investors.
Partner at New Enterprise Associates, Rick Yang, said: “BlockCypher has built the only cloud-optimized block chain technology layer, allowing developers and large enterprises to easily build and adopt block chain technology. We are thrilled to partner with the team as they enable and power the next wave of block chain applications.”
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