US-based financial transfer technology provider Ripple closed a $55m series B round yesterday supported by a raft of strategic investors including futures company CME and data storage provider Seagate Technology.
The round also featured financial services firms Standard Chartered, Siam Commercial Bank, Santander and SBI Holdings, professional services firm Accenture and venture capital firm Venture 51.
CME, Seagate, Accenture, Santander and SCB invested through their respective VC subsidiaries: CME Ventures, Seagate Venture Capital, Accenture Ventures, Santander InnoVentures and SCB Digital Ventures.
Ripple produces enterprise blockchain technology that helps banks make transactions directly across borders at lower cost. It claims its network includes 15 of the world’s top 50 banks.
Yoshitaka Kitao, president and CEO of SBI Holdings, said: “Distributed financial technology is already beginning to transform the financial system, and we’re excited to help Ripple drive even broader adoption of its enterprise solutions in Asia and around the world.
“Following the recent creation of our joint venture SBI Ripple Asia, and in light of incredible customer growth, we are very pleased to increase our investment in Ripple.”
Richard Lumb, group chief executive for financial services at Accenture, added: “Accenture has worked alongside Ripple for some time now, helping our banking clients understand and implement distributed financial technology.
“In addition to this investment by Accenture Ventures, we have formed an alliance with Ripple to investigate new ways to help clients use their technology, leveraging Accenture’s deep industry expertise.”
Ripple has now secured $90m altogether, with its initial seed funding in 2013 coming from GV, the corporate venturing unit then known as Google Ventures; IDG Capital Partners, an affiliate of media company International Data Group; Andreessen Horowitz, FF Angel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vast Ventures and Bitcoin Opportunity Fund.
IDG Capital also took part in a $3.5m seed round in November 2013, which included Lightspeed, Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Venture 51, Camp One Ventures, FF Angel, Core Innovation Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Vast Ventures.
Santander InnoVentures contributed $4m to a $32m series A round in October 2015 featuring Seagate, CME, IDG Capital, Venture 51, Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Vast Ventures, Core Innovation, AME Cloud Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, China Growth Capital, Wicklow Capital, Route 66 Ventures and RRE Ventures.