Major Banks Santander, MUFG Lead $14M Investment in Securitize

Securitize, a Coinbase-backed token issuance protocol, has raised $14 million in a funding round led by the venture capital (VC) wings of major commercial banks. 

The San Francisco-based startup has conducted an extension of its Series A round to continue developing its technology platform.

According to a news release on Sept. 24, the three major investor banks were Santander’s VC arm Santander InnoVentures, Japanese investment group Nomura Holdings and MUFG Innovation Partners, a fully-owned VC subsidiary of Japan’s bank holding MUFG.

The new investment round brings Securitize’s total financing up to $30 million after the company secured $12.75 million in a Series A round from major blockchain investors including Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Ripple Ventures, Global Brains and NXTP in November 2018.

Other important investors

The new fundraising also included KDDI Open Innovation fund, the venture arm of KDDI, one of the largest telecom firms in Japan, as well as major Hong Kong blockchain VC firm Kenetic Capital, Chinese blockchain-focused Fenbushi Capital and Mitsui Fudosan-backed 31 Ventures.

Tezos to work with Securitize

The Tezos Foundation and United States-based blockchain VC group Algo VC also participated in the round. According to the news release, Tezos and Algo VC plan to cooperate with Securitize for digitizing securities on the Tezos and Algorand blockchains, following the strategic investment.

In August 2019, Securitize registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), claiming that the company became the first SEC-approved transfer agent with a working blockchain protocol and active securities issuers.