Participated · Equity · Feb 2023

GrainChain develops end-to-end technology solutions that connect producers, storage operators, buyers, and financiers, bringing transparency and efficiency to agricultural commodity markets. Its suite includes Trumodity for producer-buyer transactions, SiloSys for inventory management in grain elevators, Seed Audit for seed traceability and quality verification, and HarvX for logistics management from farm to storage. By leveraging blockchain, smart contracts, and IoT devices, the company aims to reduce friction and risk in commodity trading while providing real-time data integrity. GrainChain plans to scale its technology footprint and broaden global market reach, with an emphasis on enhancing embedded financial services for agricultural stakeholders. The firm previously raised $29 million in 2023 to accelerate expansion across the United States and Latin America. The new capital further bolsters its balance sheet, bringing additional resources to support product development and international growth.

Participated · Series C · Feb 2018

IdentityMind Global provides a SaaS RegTech platform that builds, maintains and analyzes digital identities worldwide, enabling identity proofing, risk-based authentication, regulatory identification, and the detection and prevention of identity fraud. The platform includes transaction monitoring for e-commerce fraud prevention, anti‑money laundering (AML) and counter terrorism financing (CTF), and uses patented eDNA technology to build anonymous trust reputations shared across its Global Identity Network. The company reports hundreds of customers spanning six continents and says it worked with over 40 ICO customers in the last six months, evaluating more than 150,000 users who contributed almost $1 billion in digital currency. IdentityMind says the new funds will be used to drive expansion in Asia, Latin America and Europe, grow sales and marketing, and to create a business unit focused on KYC and AML solutions for ICOs and the cryptocurrency market. The firm has opened an office in Beijing and emphasizes Eastern Link Capital’s China expertise as supporting its Asian expansion. IdentityMind highlights GDPR compliance and positions its product as a GDPR‑compliant RegTech solution amid growing market demand. IdentityMind Global is a Palo Alto, CA-based risk management platform serving e-commerce and regulatory compliance needs. It provides an online platform for merchants, acquiring banks, payment processors, gateways, PSP/ISO/MSP, digital currency exchanges, and financial institutions to manage global risk and comply with anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and fraud-prevention guidance. The company is led by Garrett Gafke, CEO and President. IdentityMind closed a round of financing led by Lakewood & Company with participation from Mozido, SBT Capital, Cybernaut, and Benhamou Global Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to expand sales and international operations. The article does not disclose the round size or the instrument(s).

Participated · Series A · Apr 2017

Factom, Inc. is an Austin, TX–based blockchain as-a-service (BaaS) technology company led by co-founder and CEO Peter Kirby. The company leverages blockchain technology to create secure and shareable software and systems for people and institutions. Factom recently launched Factom Harmony, a product intended to bring transparency and immutable audit records for compliance in the U.S. mortgage industry. The firm targets applications that require tamper-evident records and auditability. Financially, Factom closed an $8.029m Series A round in which an earlier $5.326m tranche was supplemented by an additional $2.70m to finish the round. Factom, led by CEO Peter Kirby, develops blockchain-as-a-service products aimed at improving compliance, identity, transparent assets, and securities systems for enterprise, government and non-profit customers. Its products include Factom Harmony, which converts document management solutions into a blockchain-based document platform, and Acolyte, which builds reputation for smart contract execution. The company states a mission “to make the world’s systems honest” by applying blockchain solutions across multiple sectors. Factom is based in Austin, Texas. In August 2017 the company completed a funding event that altered its ownership structure and board composition. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. Factom is an Austin, Texas–based blockchain technology company that secures data via decentralization. Its open-source core software underpins premium products Factom Apollo and Factom Iris, designed to secure records and identity. The company raised $4.2M in a Series A equity round to expand operations and further develop its technology and product suite. The round was led by Tim Draper of Draper Associates and included a broad mix of strategic and angel investors. Factom intends to use the proceeds to grow operations and advance its core offerings. Leadership comprises CEO and Co-founder Peter Kirby and Chief Architect and Co-founder Paul Snow. Factom provides software that lets companies maintain permanent, time-stamped records tied to blockchains, reducing the cost and complexity of audits, records management and regulatory compliance. Its tools enable transparent accountability systems and immutable records that can be synced and shared among multiple parties, with validation and verification tools for real-time auditing and future business-process analysis. The company positions its audit and verification tools for use across financial services, insurance claims processing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, telecoms, mobile banking and online real estate transactions. Factom has sold US$1.2m of its "Factoid" software licenses to over 1,500 software purchasers and has established an active developer network building integrations. The company raised $400k in seed funding and plans to use the proceeds to grow sales and expand the developer network while integrating additional applications. Factom is negotiating engagements with several large US companies in banking, insurance and healthcare and intends to raise a Series A in the first half of 2016. Factom offers a data and record-keeping layer built on top of Bitcoin, positioning itself as a protocol for securing records and data. The project recently debuted its first release client and is preparing a public beta client. It closed a $1.1M equity crowdsale hosted by BnkToTheFuture and exceeded its minimum funding target. Earlier in the year Factom raised 2,278 BTC (about $540,000) through a public sale of factoids, its transaction token. Prior to these raises the project had been bootstrapped by an undisclosed network of private investors. The Factom Foundation relocated to London and has cited its permissive stance on software sales as a factor in its development and fundraising momentum. The raise drew notable interest from state governments and financial institutions, including a Honduras land-title initiative and advisory work with USAA.

Led · Series A · Apr 2016

Bitt, founded in 2013 and based in Barbados, develops financial software and a mobile application platform using blockchain and distributed ledger technology to enable secure peer-to-peer transactions. The company focuses on infrastructure to support a digital financial ecosystem across the Caribbean and to promote financial inclusion and economic growth. Bitt has been active in central bank digital currency work, signing a March 2019 contract with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to pilot a digital Eastern Caribbean (EC) dollar for use across ECCU member countries. The company aims to reduce physical cash usage and improve merchant-consumer transactions via smartphone apps. Leadership includes Brian Popelka, who will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer. The additional capital from its investor is intended to help Bitt pursue market opportunities that accelerate digital currency adoption in developing countries and continue product innovation. Bitt.com is a Barbados-based financial technology company founded in 2015 by CEO Rawdon Adams. It uses blockchain and distributed ledger technology to build a secure, streamlined, peer-to-peer payments ecosystem and digital wallets across the Caribbean region. Bitt has launched a digital wallet in Barbados and signed a memorandum of understanding with Montserrat to launch a national digital payments platform. Its current financial update includes an additional $3M investment from Medici Ventures, which exercised an option to purchase more ownership interest. That exercise increased Medici Ventures’ ownership of Bitt’s Class A and B common shares by 8.6%. Medici Ventures is a wholly owned subsidiary of Overstock.com, Inc. Bitt is a Caribbean fintech focused on enabling digital national currencies and frictionless mobile cash across island nations. Its core product is digitizing fiat currencies on the bitcoin blockchain; in February 2016 it launched a digitized Barbadian Dollar backed by the Central Bank of Barbados. The company intends to digitize all fiat currencies in the Caribbean and create a regional ecosystem to ease exchange, settlement, and cross‑island trading. Bitt aims to reduce high frictional fees from banks and money services, enable small businesses to offer online payments, and let citizens send or receive money via their phones in seconds. Overstock.com announced an initial $4 million strategic investment in Bitt to support these efforts, announced at a media conference in Barbados. Bitt is a Barbados-based digital asset exchange, remittance channel, and merchant-processing gateway. It leverages AlphaPoint’s technology designed by veteran Wall Street traders. The platform facilitates international Bitcoin trading in 11 major fiat currencies, including the US Dollar (USD), Great Britain Pound (GBP), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Euro (EUR) and Barbadian Dollar (BBD). Founded in 2013 by Gabriel Abed and Oliver Gale, Bitt focuses on cross-border payments and merchant acceptance. The company secured $1.5M in seed funding from Avatar Capital and plans to use the funds to continue to develop and expand its core services.