Basis, the US-based developer of a cryptocurrency designed to be stable, secured $133m today in a private placement featuring GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet technology conglomerate Alphabet.
The investors also included Bain Capital Ventures, the venture capital arm of private equity firm Bain Capital, as well as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Foundation Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Wing VC, NFX Ventures, Valor Capital, ZhenFund, INBlockchain, Ceyuan Ventures, Sky9 Capital and angel investors Stanley Druckenmiller and Kevin Warsh.
Those investors, revealed by Basis in a blog post today, were joined by Sky Capital and Digital Currency Group according to TechCrunch. The private placement took the form of a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) offering that will enable investors to buy tokens at a later date.
Formerly known as Basecoin, Basis is developing a cryptocurrency that will have an elastic supply in order to ensure its value is kept stable, preventing it from artificially rising and falling due to speculators.
The added stability would allow the currency to be used for more traditional financial services such as loans and salaries, particularly in areas of the world where formal currencies are subject to large fluctuations in value.
Basis founder and CEO Nader Al-Naji said: “Through our private placement, we do not just have the support of financial institutions like venture capitalists and crypto hedge funds.
“Major crypto exchanges, blockchain wallets, application developers and economists have also come in to support our effort. We are proud to say that our backers now form an international network of supporters who have come together to help us make Basis the next great monetary system.”