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Digital Asset Sees IBM & Goldman Sachs Join as Investors, Pushing Funding Beyond $60 Million

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:46 PM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:46 PM

Digital Asset Holdings (DAH), the New York firm developing blockchain solutions for the financial services industry has announced two new investors joining its funding round. IBM and Goldman Sachs join 13 other investors with the funding round now scaling beyond $60 million.

Digital Asset has announced that Goldman Sachs and IBM are now among the investors in its funding round, with the financing now going beyond $60 million.

The newest investors come after in the days following a the announcement recent blockchain trial with its lead investor – JPMogran Chase.

Prior to its new investors, Digital Asset had secured $52 from 13 global financial firms. With the latest additions, the 15 firms participating in the funding round are:

ABN AMRO; Accenture; ASX Limited, BNP Paribas; Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.; Citi; CME Ventures; Deutsche Börse Group; The Goldman Sachs Group; IBM; ICAP; J.P. Morgan; Santander InnoVentures; The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

IBM’s foray into distributed ledger technology has been well documented, with the technology giant-led effort of an open-source blockchain project overseen by the Linux Foundation. The “Open Ledger Project” also sees Digital Asset contributing existing code, technology and know-how to the project, along with IBM. Digital Asset could also contribute its ‘Hyperledger’ name as one to brand the project in the future.

Citing their previous partnership in a media release, Jerry Cuomo, IBM Fellow and Vice President, Blockchain stated:

We are excited to jointly develop distributed ledger technologies that will allow our clients to transform their business, and further strengthen our partnership with Digital Asset.

IBM and Digital Asset are the only two firms among several others in the Open Ledger Project who have currently pledged to contribute code and developer resources.

Cuomo added:

Blockchain holds real potential to transform a wide range of industries and IBM is committed to making it ready for business.

Goldman Sachs has previously invested in Bitcoin wallet and exchange service provider Circle, as the lead investor in a $50 million funding round. The bank’s latest investment marks the second known investment from Goldman Sachs in the bitcoin and blockchain-space.

The New York-based bank also filed a patent application for a cryptocurrency called SETL Coin, to be used for securities settlement, as revealed late last year. The bank is bullish about Bitcoin’s underlying technology, with one research note sent to its client simply stating that “the Blockchain, can change…well everything.”

Following an investment in Digital Asset, Global Co-head of Technology at Goldman Sachs, Paul Walker said in a statement:

We believe that distributed ledger technology will play a transformative role in the way financial institutions transact globally and we look forward to working with Digital Asset and the broader financial and technical community to engage this emerging technology.

Goldman Sachs’ co-head of technology, Don Duet, was recently featured in a podcast hosted by the investment bank called “the Digitization of Finance.” Duet addressed the changing landscape of finance and notably addressed blockchain technology and the heady excitement surrounding it within the current financial industry.

Featured image from Shutterstock.