Western Union Invests In Barry Silbert's DCG

The Digital Currency Group (DCG) has just announced via its blog that it has added new investors, board members and advisors to the firm. Written by CEO Barry Silbert the DCG founder says over the past six months the business has grown quite a bit. One of the investors added to the company’s partnerships include the global payment processor Western Union.

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Digital Currency Group Names Western Union as an Investor

Silbert says since the inception of DCG in October of 2015 the company has added 70 digital currency and blockchain related companies across 22 countries. The firm also operates three wholly owned subsidiaries as well including the media website CoinDesk. The DCG founder says he’s excited to announce new investors this spring and the groups “now span various segments of the financial industry.” The newly acquired investors include Western Union, Beijing-based HCM International Company, and a number of family offices, investment managers, and funds including Gibraltar Ventures, OMERS Ventures, Horizon Kinetics, Kingsbridge Wealth Management, and Wood Investment Partners. Silbert explains how they have been working to build the business in the announcement:

“Over the past six months, we have worked with our investors and other corporate partners to create new models for partnership that create value and opportunity for our portfolio companies, our investors, and the broader corporate ecosystem. Our aim is to help companies learn together and build partnerships that leverage the unique strengths and insights of each stakeholder. We continue to believe that collaboration and partnership between startups, incumbents and the industry will be a winning recipe in helping this new technology achieve its true potential and accelerating the development of a better financial system.”

In addition to investors added to firm the company has announced members and advisors “who will help us realize the vision for Digital Currency Group.” Glenn Hutchins was added to the DCG Board of Directors and has a lot of financial experience working with AT&T, Nasdaq, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Brookings Institution, and the Boston Celtics Executive Committee. Alongside Hutchins the co-founder of Resonance Lawrence Lenihan is also joining the board. Lawrence’s previous work includes FirstMark Capital, and as a professor at NYU’s Stern School where he teaches “Next Generation Retail.” Glenn Hutchins said of the announcement:

“Digital Currency Group (DCG) has positioned itself as a key participant in the Bitcoin universe, a space which has the promise to be one of the most innovative sectors of today’s technology ecosystem. Bitcoin technology has the potential, among many other impacts, to transform the global payments system and DCG aims to be a central force in the transformation.”

Dr. Lawrence H. Summers and Gavin Andresen are Two advisors who have also been added to the company. Andresen has been a core developer since Satoshi Nakamoto left the Bitcoin environment in 2010. Dr. Summers was the 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton and has also worked with the Obama administration. He currently is a Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University.

The DCG blog post says that all of the team’s advisors will be speaking at Consensus 2016 in New York City. The firm says they look forward to the new innovative ideas that will come with new investment and advisors. With partnerships and investors like Western Union Silbert states the “DCG family continues to grow, and we are excited to continue supporting and building meaningful businesses in the digital currency and distributed ledger space.”

What do you think about DCG’s recent investors and new advisors? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of the DCG website, Twitter, and Pixbay