Multinational venture capital firms join blockchain investment

Rage Comment : Life.SREDA recently announced the establishment of the Banking on Blockchain Fund (BB Fund) to provide start-up funds for blockchain companies that are just starting out, and to provide financial institutions with opportunities to enter the blockchain field. Life.SREDA's main investment targets are mobile and Internet projects in the field of financial technology. In recent years, Europe's investment in technology companies has grown rapidly, especially in 2016, when investment in the blockchain field was four times more than in 2015. In addition to BB Fund, DCG Group and Draper Fisher Jurvetson have made a lot of investments in the blockchain field, and they all hope to lay a solid foundation for building a new financial model in the future.

Translation: Annie_Xu

Life.SREDA recently announced the establishment of the Banking on Blockchain Fund, abbreviated as BB Fund. The fund provides start-up capital for blockchain companies that are just starting up, and provides financial institutions with access to the "fast-growing blockchain ecosystem."

The fund received an original capital of US$5 million from Life.SREDA. Its short-term goal is to expand the capital to US$50 million by the end of this year; its long-term goal is to obtain US$100 million in financing from financial institutions before 2017.

“The big shift in 2016 will be the acceptance and adoption of blockchain technology; 2016 will be the year people start using blockchain technology without even realizing it.”

Life.SREDA, a venture capital firm that primarily invests in mobile and internet projects in the financial technology sector, said the “next big thing” is the fusion of global trends of the past few decades, such as social and mobile technology advances, with smart innovative thinking in internet finance.

The company was originally a venture capital firm in Moscow; in the four years since its founding, it has established branches in the United States and Europe, and moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2014, marking the company's entry into the Asian market.

LifePay, Russia's largest mobile retail system, entered the Southeast Asian market in 2015 by acquiring iboxPro. Life.SREDA invested $10 million in the acquisition. The company also invested $15 million in SumUp, a European company similar to Square, and did not disclose the specific amount of investment in Rocketbank, a mobile bank, and Fidor, an online bank. Thomas Labenbacher, the new managing director of BB Fund, was previously a senior executive of Fidor.

LifePay is the most successful of Life.SREDA’s investment projects; its first round of investment exceeded $40 million, and the investment targets included 15 different start-ups; in June 2013, it participated in the financing of Simple, a US mobile banking service company. Later, Simple was acquired by Spanish banking group BBVA for $117 million, making its annual return reach 180%.

Vladislav Solodkiy, the co-manager of the company, started his career in marketing and advertising, and later served as an executive in top Russian companies, including MTS, Alfa-Bank, and Russian Standard Bank. Vladisalv's projects have won the Brand of the Year Award, the EFFIE Award three times, and participated in the Cannes Lions International Creative Festival.

Life.SREDA:

“In 2016, venture capital firms and financial institutions invested $1 billion in blockchain technology startups, five times the total amount in 2015, and this strong momentum is expected to continue until 2020.”

BB Fund will be headquartered in London, with Europe as its main market. Its goal is to become the preferred service provider for banks and help them enter the rapidly developing blockchain field.

According to data provided by London & Partners, an official marketing company in London, the total financing amount of the Internet finance industry in 2015 was US$3.6 billion, an increase of 70% from US$2.1 billion in 2014.

Since 2010, UK technology companies have raised $10 billion in funding, with London-based companies accounting for more than half of that total, at $5.2 billion. London & Partners said that "in 2015, London-based technology companies accounted for 63% of all venture capital raised by UK companies."

BB Fund said:

“The purpose of the financing is to nurture enterprises that we are optimistic about, which have good performance in terms of technology, management and business capabilities, and therefore have a great chance of success.”

Recently, many venture capital firms have been paying attention to Bitcoin and blockchain-related products; Barry Silbert's DCG Group (Digital Currency Group) has invested in nearly 60 companies in more than 20 countries.

DCG says:

“Our mission is to accelerate the development of a better financial system; we use our insights, networks, and capital to create and support Bitcoin and blockchain companies.”

Barry Silbert, CEO and founder of DCG, said:

“We believe that digital currencies, distributed ledgers, and smart contracts will revolutionize financial services, and DCG’s mission is to help build the foundation of the blockchain industry.”

Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s growth fund is headed by well-known blockchain investor Tim Draper, who last year made one of the largest investments in the blockchain space, investing $75 million in wallet and exchange company Coinbase.

Bnk To The Future, a Bitcoin equity crowdfunding platform, also participated in Internet finance investment, and most of its investment targets are blockchain solution development projects. The company said:

“We believe that the financial industry of the future will be different from today. Currently, startups and products are building the financial world of the future, and we provide people with investment opportunities in these companies and products.”