Bitcoin and Blockchain incubator Digital Currency Group, Inc. (DCG) has raised an undisclosed amount of capital in a round that included Bain Capital Ventures, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), CME Ventures, FirstMark Capital, MasterCard, New York Life, Novel TMT, Oak HC/FT, RRE Ventures, Solon Mack Capital, and Transamerica Ventures.
Founded this year, DCG builds, incubates and seeds Bitcoin and Blockchain technology-related companies, with a particular focus on service businesses that fill important gaps in existing market infrastructure.
Along with its incubation role, the company also owns and operates Bitcoin brokerage firm, Genesis Trading, along with digital currency asset management firm Grayscale Investments, the management company for the publicly listed Bitcoin investment group the Bitcoin Investment Trust.
DCG claims to be the most active seed investor in the Bitcoin and Blockchain industry, and currently holds investments in over 50 startups covering 15 different countries.
“I wanted to work with firms who have a long-term perspective, and were willing to explore with us and invest not only money, but real organizational and intellectual capital into building businesses and partnerships that will enable us to unleash value in new, unprecedented ways,” founder Barry Silbert said in a statement.
Interestingly DCG is structured as a holding company rather than a tradition investment fund, an advantage Silbert believes delivers the company necessary flexibility and diversification: “Being structured as a company, versus a fund, allows us to evolve with the industry given our permanent capital base and flexible mandate…It is our view that broad exposure with the optionality to concentrate our focus is a winning strategy.”
Impressive list
The list of companies DCG has already invested in is highly impressive, and includes well-known names in the Bitcoin and Blockchain fintech space including Chain, Circle, Coinbase, Ripple, Xapo, and more recently Ascribe and ShoCard.
That said, Silbert, who recently sold his earlier startup, the SaaS investment platform SecondMarket, to NASDAQ, is playing the long game with the investments, and has an interesting take on the broader market as it currently stands.
“We’re still far away from Bitcoin being a functional currency, and I don’t think we’ve gotten closer lately,” Silbert noted. “First it’s going to function as a speculative investment that will drive up the price and create a larger monetary base that will draw in Wall Street to trade it. Then more merchants will come on board. As it gets more liquid, as a [payment] rail it will become a real alternative to the existing money transfer systems in the world today. I really believe that’s what will happen, and I want DGC to be a big part of it.”
The company said it would use the new funds to further expand its investment portfolio.
Image credit: docsearls/Flickr/CC by 2.0
Duncan Riley
Duncan is a co-founder of VC funded media company B5Media and founder of news site The Inquisitr, and was a senior writer at TechCrunch in its earlier days.
Tips? Press releases? Intersting startup? email: duncan@nichenet.com.au or contact Duncan on Twitter @duncanriley
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