Altcoin News: Paypal Invests in Blockchain-Startup Cambridge Blockchain

April 3, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

PayPal, an online payment giant, made its first investment in a blockchain technology company, Cambridge Blockchain.

PayPal contributed to a series of A Cambridge Blockchain financing — a startup that helps financial institutions and companies manage confidential data using the blockchain.

The amount of investment was not disclosed, but the documents submitted to the SEC indicate that Cambridge Blockchain attracted a total of $3.5 million from several investors, including PayPal and the Omidyar Network.

Earlier, the startup was financed by HCM Capital — a division of the largest Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn — and Digital Currency Group.

“We made an investment in Cambridge Blockchain because it is applying blockchain for digital identity in a way that we believe could benefit financial services companies including PayPal. Our investment will allow us to explore potential collaborations to leverage blockchain technology,” commented PayPal spokesman Taylor Watson.

He confirmed that this is the first PayPal investment in the blockchain company. According to Cambridge Blockchain CEO Matthew Commons, PayPal is already indirectly associated with its startup participating in the Fintech Europe 2018 acceleration program sponsored by PayPal.

“At the end of 2018, the Cambridge Blockchain began working directly with the corporate venture group PayPal from San Jose, which ultimately led to investment,” said Commons.

Cambridge Blockchain is engaged in storing and checking data using the blockchain. Currently, a startup has 15 employees in offices in the United States, Paris and the newly established base in Beijing.

“While we are not talking about the commercialization of our projects, because they are more like research,” said the head of the startup.

Cambridge Blockchain projects involve the verification of personal customer data (KYC) required to open accounts with banks and other financial service providers, although it also works with commercially important supply chain data from Foxconn. The startup is part of the Decentralized Identity Foundation, which includes the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, R3, IBM Blockchain, and Hyperledger.

The company has experience with stringent European restrictions, such as the General Data Protection Statement (GDPR) and PSD2, the second European payment directive. By providing a compatible but effective exchange of personal data, the startup claims that it can help reduce the massive duplication of KYC rules that is happening today.

These projects should interest PayPal, which has hundreds of millions of accounts worldwide, as well as operators of other platforms, such as Venmo, Hyperwallet, and Swift Financial.

Author: Marko Vidrih