Tag Archive for: Fireblocks
Fireblocks raises $310 million at $2 billion valuation
Israeli cryptocurrency security company Fireblocks, which develops a secure platform for the transfer of digital assets, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $310 million in Series D funding at a $2 billion valuation. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Spark Capital, Coatue, DRW VC and SCB 10X, the venture arm of Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank, whose investment marks the third global bank to invest in Fireblocks alongside BNY Mellon and SVB Capital.
Fireblocks co-founders. Photo: Yulia Nar
Fireblocks raised $133 million in Series C just four months ago. Calcalist revealed in June that the company was being sued for the loss of $75 million worth in cryptocurrency Ether.
Fireblocks co-founders. Photo: Yulia Nar
Fireblocks co-founder and CEO Michael Shaulov told Calcalist that “the legal proceedings had no effect on the funding round as, with all due respect to their lawsuit, it is clear to me what the result will be.” Shaulov, who sold his previous startup Lacoon to Check Point six years ago, added with a smile that “Gil Shwed won’t be buying us this time.”
Most of the funding will enter the company’s accounts, but part of it has been allocated for secondary deals, with the company allowing employees to sell some of their shares.
Shaulov told Calcalist that the round had one main important goal which was to send a message to the market that Fireblocks is an independent company and is here to stay. “Over the past year, there have been many mergers in our sector which added anxiety to the market. PayPal bought an Israeli company and one of our other competitors was also acquired. This funding round is a very important message for the market that we are not for sale. There aren’t many players in the market that can currently acquire us. We want to show everybody that we have a lot of money. The institutions with which we work like to cooperate with organizations that have a lot of money.”
Shaulov also added that “we will recruit more people to our team which helps financial institutions enter this new world. This is a new team that helps traditional players enter the crypto world. We are growing at a crazy rate. We have 500 clients today compared to…
Israeli crypto security platform Fireblocks raises $30m
Israeli startup Fireblocks, which specializes in secure cryptocurrency transfers, announced the completion of a Series B funding round of $30 million, bringing to $46 million the amount raised by the company to date. The current round was led by Paradigm, with participation from existing investors, Gili Raanan’s investment fund CyberStarts (in which Shlomo Kramer and Mickey Boodae ar einvested), Tenaya Capital, Swisscom, Galaxy Digital, Digital Currency Group (DCG), and Cedar Hill Capital.
Paradigm co-founder and managing partner Fred Ehrsam, a co-founder of Coinbase, has joined Fireblocks’ board of directors.
Fireblocks is a platform for financial organizations that provides a secured infrastructure for the transfer, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure.
Fireblocks says that it has secured the transfer of over $150 billion in digital assets since its platform was launched in June 2019. Among its customers are well-known blockchain and fintech companies such as Revolut, Celsius, BlockFi, PrimeTrust, Genesis, and Nexo. According to the company, the Fireblocks Network comprises more than 160 active institutional participants, including some of the crypto world’s biggest liquidity providers, such as B2C2, Galaxy, Amber, and Three Arrows.
Fireblocks’ activity has grown substantially in the past few months, among other things thanks to the positive trend in the global cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, is close to the all-time peak value it reached three years ago, above $18,000.
Fireblocks is now one of the largest blockchain companies in Israel,. It employ 75 people, 50 of them at its R&D center in the We TLV tower in Tel Aviv. It also has offices in New York, in Europe, and in Hong Kong and Singapore. The company says that it will use the money raised to expand its workforce to 150 in 2021, with the number of developers in Israel being doubled to 100. It has recruited former Cico VP Matt Maloney as SVP of Global Sales.
Fireblocks was founded in 2018…