Chain, a US-based blockchain technology developer backed by corporates Capital One, Citi, Fiserv, Nasdaq, Orange and Visa, merged with fintech producer Lightyear on Monday.
The merger will result in the formation of a new company, Interstellar, that will focus on integrating Chain’s and Lightyear’s respective blockchain technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 2014, Chain has developed a cloud-based blockchain infrastructure, called Sequence, that enables enterprise clients to securely track and transfer balances in the form of tokens.
The company had raised $44m in funding prior to the merger, most recently closing a $30m series B round in 2015 backed by payment processing service Visa, telecoms firm Orange and stock exchange operator Nasdaq.
The round also featured financial services firms Capital One and Citi, which participated through its corporate venturing arm Citi Ventures, and fintech developer Fiserv, as well as Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures, Thrive Capital, SV Angel and assorted angel investors.
Homebrew, 500 Startups and Pantera Capital are also among Chain’s shareholders.
Lightyear was founded in 2017 by Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit that has developed public ledger protocol Stellar to commercially exploit the technology. SDF received a $3m loan from payment processing firm Stripe in 2014 and will remain independent.
Interstellar will offer an end-to-end platform for organisations to issue, exchange and manage assets as they move between private ledgers and the Stellar network. It will also operate a marketplace to trade assets, called StellarX.
Adam Ludwin, chief executive of Chain, will retain the same position with Interstellar, while Jed McCaleb, co-founder of Lightyear and Stellar Development Foundation, will be chief technology officer.