DG Lab Fund I, a fund formed by internet company Digital Garage and investment bank Daiwa Securities, has invested an undisclosed amount in US-based blockchain technology developer Blockstream.
Although the precise amount supplied by the fund was not revealed, the investment increased Blockstream’s overall funding to $80m. It had disclosed $76m of funding as of the close of its $55m series A round in February 2016.
Blockstream is developing technology based on blockchain, the distributed ledger technology used in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The technology could theoretically deter fraud and security breaches if applied to the financial services system.
More specifically, the company is partnering others to work on a Bitcoin-based micropayment system called Lightning Networks and Elements, a crowdsourced project that aims to expand the capabilities of sidechains – blockchains that validate the data from other blockchains.
Digital Garage co-led the Bockstream’s series B round with Axa Strategic Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for insurance group Axa, and venture capital firm Horizons Ventures.
AME Cloud Ventures, FuturePerfect Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, Blockchain Capital and Seven Seas Venture Partners also took part in the series B round.
The first four had already backed the company’s $21m seed round in 2014 alongside Crypto Currency Partners, Real Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Ribbit Capital and a group of angel investors that included Reid Hoffman and Danny Hillis.