Mirror has secured $8.8m in Series A financing to reposition itself as a smart contract trading platform built on bitcoin’s blockchain.

Led by Ripple Labs investor Route 66 Ventures, the round also included Battery Ventures, Crosslink Capital, RRE Ventures and Tim Draper. As part of the deal, Route 66 venture partner Pascal Bouvier will join Mirror’s board of directors.

Reports of Mirror’s round first surfaced in a New York Times article that suggested the company had raised $12.5m to fund a pivot toward smart contract technology with the help of renowned cryptography expert Nick Szabo.

In a statement, CEO Avish Bhama spoke of the wider impact he hopes his company’s new direction will have.

“There is an unbundling of the financial services industry that’s occurring right now, and we see an enormous opportunity to provide advanced, more efficient services for risk management and hedging.”

With total investment standing at $12.8m, Mirror indicated it will use the funding to build out its engineering team while scaling its international operations.

The company raised $4m in seed funding last May from Battery Ventures, Tim Draper and AOL CEO Steve Case under its previous name, Vaurum, before rebranding later that year.

At the time, the company suggested it would seek to improve liquidity in international markets and democratize access to the financial system.

Investment image via Shutterstock