China-based blockchain technology producer Juzhen Financials has raised $23m in a series A round led by automotive components manufacturer Wanxiang Holdings, CoinDesk reported yesterday.
Fenbushi Capital, the blockchain-focused investment subsidiary of Wanxiang, also contributed money to the round, which is reportedly the largest single deal by an Asia-based startup in the sector to date.
Established in 2014, Juzhen is working on blockchain technology to be used as a distributed ledger by financial services firms. The company has not yet released a product and is still researching whether to choose a software-only approach or to also develop hardware.
The funding will go towards recruitment, but will also support Juzhen’s aim to address limitations of blockchain technology, such as privacy. To accelerate the latter, Juzhen plans to support academic research on financial cryptography.
Lilin Sun, founder of Juzhen Financials, said: “If you want to change the infrastructure, it takes a long time. It is a lot of engineering work, and you have to understand the culture. We understand the Chinese market.
“Lot of mistakes still happen in post-trade every day, but with blockchain it is easier to balance, faster and more accurate.”