BlockFi is on the hunt for a chief financial officer. The new hire could help bring the company public as early as the second half of 2021, CEO Zac Prince confirmed.
It seems that famous crypto lender BlockFi is looking to hire an experienced corporate financial professional to launch a possible initial public offering (IPO) next year.
According to a recent job posting, the company is looking for a chief financial officer with more than 15 years of experience in corporate finance. The person has to have a strong background in financial markets and the public markets. The perfect candidate-job would consist of managing investor relations and “guide and position the finance team for late-stage investment, acquisition, and/or IPO.”
BlockFi chief executive officer Zac Prince confirmed the company could go for an IPO as early as the second half of 2021.
Talks with Investors for Next Funding Round
A source familiar with the situation confirmed the company is currently in talks with potential investors in order to have an additional funding round.
Prince said:
“Fortunately, we are continuing to successfully implement our strategy of never slowing down.”
BlockFi managed to raise $30 million in a Series B funding round that was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, a famous fintech investor back in February. Among other underwriters are Morgan Creek Digital, Arrington XRP Capital, and Castle Island Ventures.
According to the company’s statement, these particular gains were somewhat related by the Bitcoin halving in May.
BlockFi said it added new clients than any other week since its beginning back in 2018. Also, 7,000 new accounts were funded, giving the company a 25% month-over-month growth rate.
Prince then said:
“The crypto financial services space is maturing and we can see a clear turning point today where traditional finance is being outpaced by digital. Savvy veterans of the old guard will continue to look to alternative technologies and digital currencies to build what the next frontier of finance will look like.”
Be it as it may, this firm will without a doubt need big funds if it is even thinking of profitably carrying out a task on its concept of making a full-scale client bank for cryptocurrencies including services as are trading, lending and high-yield savings.
Series of Hirings at BlockFi Before Possible IPO
During the whole business development, the company took a series of hirings, including a former American Express Vice President Wittney Rachlin. Rachlin was employed in order to guide the launch of a BlockFi Bitcoin credit card.
Prince already then confirmed that the company was on its way to launch its first round of cards in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Also, in what could seem like a sign of that focus on Asia, BlockFi has hired former trader at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Fintech entrepreneur Rishi Ramchandani to lead its business development in Asia.
Asia already is the biggest cryptocurrency market in the world, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. With almost 13 years of experience in traditional finance within the region, Ramchandani will be tasked with expanding BlockFi’s presence and growing its institutional partnerships and client roster in Asian markets.
Also, we should not forget that the company had been pretty successful lately. In its blog post, it confirmed it is “on track to generate $50 million in revenue” during the next year’s time.
Prince also stated:
“Monthly revenue has grown four times since Dec. 19 and doubled from the beginning to end of Q2.”
However, as usual, the situation with young startups happens, the company came to some barriers. Recently it went through a data breach in May, which resulted in the information uncovering related to a large number of its retail users. The company then stated it was the result of a SIM card swap attack on a BlockFi employee’s cell phone number.
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