US-based cryptocurrency technology developer 21, Inc. has raised $116m in funding from investors including Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of wireless technology producer Qualcomm, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
Venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, RRE Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Data Collective, and private equity firm Yuan Capital have also invested, along with angel investors including Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Mark Pincus
The funding was raised over multiple rounds, according to digital currency news source Coindesk, and includes $5m secured in late 2013 when the company called itself 21E6.
Founded in 2013, 21 is still operating in stealth so the exact nature of its technology and business plan have not been disclosed.
Speculation initially focused on bitcoin mining technology, but CEO and co-founder Matthew Pauker told the WSJ 21 will soon release details concerning software and hardware products designed “to drive mainstream adoption of bitcoin.”
Pauker added that 21 intends to harness Qualcomm’s marketing and production resources to develop consumer products capable of integrating with the blockchain, the public, digital ledger maintained by a network of independently owned systems that makes bitcoin possible as a cryptocurrency.
Such products could involve using blockchain technology to maintain internet-of-things products that connect with servers in order to fulfil functions without human involvement.
“Bitcoin is going to change the way that people and businesses and even machines interact with each other,” Pauker said. “But for bitcoin to realise that vision we need mass adoption. It cannot just be for Silicon Valley.”