PeerNova has raised $8.6m in new funding as it seeks to pivot from providing enterprise bitcoin mining infrastructure to enterprise blockchain software solutions.

The Series A investment was led by Mosaik Partners. Former AOL CEO Steve Case and Crypto Currency Partners also participated in the round.

Formed in May of this year, PeerNova is the result of a merger between mining companies HighBitcoin and CloudHashing. HighBitcoin developed mining hardware, while CloudHashing still sells contracts for mining as a service.

Emmanuel Abiodun, president and CCO for PeerNova, told CoinDesk that, despite the company’s new goals, mining will remain a part of its efforts.

Abiodun, who was previously CEO of CloudHashing, said:

“We’re going to maintain the mining side, but it is not going to be the predominant side of our business. We see ourselves more as an infrastructure play rather than a cryptocurrency company.”

The company’s revamped website further suggests decentralized applicatoins (DApps), smart property, smart contracts and e-currency software-as-a-service applications will all be of interest as Peernova pursues its new direction.

Abiodun added that he believes the public repositioning reflects an ongoing internal transition at the company, noting: “We’re more of a software business than a hardware business now.”

Infrastructure services

The move may be surprising given that bitcoin mining is a heavily hardware intensive industry. However, PeerNova wants to move more toward software tools that allow companies to use blockchains for different applications.

Peernova said it is working on two products it will announce sometime next year.

Abiodun noted:

“We’re looking more at enterprise solutions. We believe there is a lot that can be done. We don’t just like talking about the technology, we believe there are a lot of applications and that’s what we’re working on right now.”

Abiodun mentioned file storage, identity management and secure transfer of assets as additional areas where the company could provide blockchain-based products.

“Our roots do come from crypto, and we’re using the technology that helped bitcoin grow to do other things than simply just currency-related,” he said.

Advanced blockchain applications

A number of companies are now building products that aim to unlock the ability of both the bitcoin blockchain and alternative blockchains to be used for public proof and asset transmission.

The thinking for many startups is that bitcoin technology does not have to be used only for financial innovations, a philosophy that has lead to the emergence of the burgeoning crypto 2.0 sector of the industry.

For example, SmartContract is betting on blockchain technology, not just bitcoin as a currency, for its strategy. Further, Blockstream just raised $21m to build sidechains, new blockchains pegged to the existing bitcoin blockchain, influencing experimentation and brand-new public ledger applications.

PeerNova’s future business prospects are now aligned toward this same business model, one that suggests blockchain-based innovations will permeate throughout the technology industry.

Abiodun said:

“Our focus is going to be a lot more the software stack that fits on top of the blockchain.”

Lightbulb image via PeerNova