$55 Million Raised by 'Bitcoin 2.0' Startup Blockstream

Blockstream has announced raising $55 million USD in a Series A funding round. The injection of capital will go towards strengthening the company’s protocol and bring these technologies to the next level. The news comes after last week’s partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to research blockchain technology and sidechain benefits within the fintech industry.

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I’m excited to announce that we raised $55 million in Series A funding to further enhance our sidechain technology, expand our operations globally, and support new industry partnerships, bringing our total investments in the company to $76 million. — Austin Hill, Blockstream

The funding round led by AXA Strategic Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Digital Garage, and more has shown investors are intrigued by Blockstream’s vision. The company has been making moves within the crypto-industry since its inception and its recent introduction of Liquid. It’s the startup’s first sidechain project and the platform that allows liquidity between cryptocurrency exchanges and brokerage services. Bitfinex, BTCC, Kraken, Unocoin, and Xapo were announced as partners to test the abilities of the new technology.

The latest partnership with PwC and its recent funding round put the spotlight on the company and what they will do next. Blockstream’s founding partners include Jonathan Wilkins, Adam Back, Jorge Timón, Erik Svenson, Gregory Maxwell, Francesca Hall, Mark Friedenbach, Matt Corallo, Pieter Wuille, and Alex Fowler. As part of the latest funding round, Austin Hill also announced that he is happy to add a new member to the Board of Directors, Frances Kang from Horizons Ventures. Kang stated:

Blockchain technology is redefining what is possible within the fintech ecosystem and beyond. The transition to this new world – one that is decentralized, interoperable, secure, and trustworthy – is going to be illuminating. We are excited to be working with Blockstream to see their innovative sidechain technology reach its full potential.

Hill states that while they are still a “young” company they have accomplished quite a bit since they started and side chains like Liquid have shown significant progress. They have doubled the team size in the past year and have added two small offices in the Bay area. The company holds workshops and has presented helpful resources such as the Elements Project, a working sidechain, Segregated Witness, and Confidential Transactions. With PwC the team hopes to “explore combining expertise and technology to accelerate the deployment of blockchain technology to the market,” says Hill.

The company looks forward to pushing Bitcoin and blockchain technology to the next level and will be earmarking the funds to make this happen. Their mission will be to “develop new tech that redefines ecosystems.” Blockstream believes that projects like Liquid and other developments will help strengthen the Bitcoin environment, and bring solutions for better protocol performance.

Hill adds:

All of our investors have a proven track record of working with companies on the bleeding edge of innovation, and across a number of industry sectors, helping to support entrepreneurs.

It appears that investment in the crypto-environment is already off to a good start early in the year, and it’s just getting started.

What do you think about Blockstream’s latest funding? Let us know in the comments below.

Full disclosure: Bitcoin.com is not invested with any of the above-mentioned businesses.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the Blockstream website