US-headquartered, crypto-focused financial services provider BlockFi closed a $350m series D round yesterday featuring quantitative trading firms Hudson River Trading and Susquehanna International Group (SIG).
The round was co-led by Bain Capital Ventures, the venture capital arm of private equity firm Bain Capital, with Pomp Investments, Tiger Global Management and partners of DST Global, while SIG invested through its Susquehanna Government Products subsidiary.
Bracket Capital, Paradigm, Valar Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, Akuna Capital, PJC, ParaFi Capital, Jump Capital, Pacific Century Group, Gaingels, Third Prime, Kenetic, CMS Holdings, Breyer Capital, The Venture Collective and Castle Island Ventures filled out the round.
BlockFi’s online platform manages crypto assets on behalf of financial services providers and wealth managers. It will put the funding into product development and an expansion into new markets that may be supported by strategic acquisitions.
The capital was secured at a $3bn valuation and pushed the company’s funding to more than $510m since it was founded in 2017.
Galaxy Digital Ventures led a $52.5m round for BlockFi in July 2018, investing with blockchain software producer Consensys’s Consensys Ventures unit and PJC, five months after both had joined online lender SoFi, Kinetic Capital, Purple Arch Ventures and Lumenary in a $1.6m seed round.
The company raised $4m in December 2018 from CMT Digital and Recruit Strategic Partners – on behalf of trading firm CM Group and human resources firm Recruit – as well as Susquehanna Government Products, Galaxy Digital, Morgan Creek Capital and Devonshire Investors.
Valar Ventures led BlockFi’s $18.3m series A round in 2019, investing with Consensys Ventures, SIG, CM Group, trading firm Akuna Capital, PJC, Galaxy Digital, Morgan Creek, Winklevoss Capital and Avon Ventures.
CMT Digital, Akuna Capital, Valar Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, Avon Ventures Capital, PJC, Winklevoss Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Arrington XRP Capital, Purple Arch Ventures, Kenetic and HashKey Capital supplied $30m in series B funding in February 2020.
The February round took BlockFi’s total funding to $110, it said. Three Arrows Capital made a secondary investment of undisclosed size in April before the company received $50m from investors including CMT Digital and financial services firm Siam Commercial Bank’s SCB 10X unit in August.
The series C round was again led by Valar Ventures and it also featured Avon Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, Purple Arch Ventures, Kenetic Capital, HashKey Capital, Michael Antonov, Matthew Dellavedova and two undisclosed university endowments.
