Anchorage, a company that provides crypto custody services for institutional investors, has just announced that it has raised $40 million in a series B round of financing from Visa.
The company, in fact, stated that the fundraising was led by Blockchain Capital, with the participation of large entities such as Visa Inc. and the investor Andreessen Horowitz.
So, in total, including the funds raised in 2017 and 2018, Anchorage has raised as much as $57 million in funding.
Visa finances crypto custody company Anchorage
Diogo Monica, co-founder and president of Anchorage, said:
“Our mission at Anchorage is to advance institutional participation in the digital asset class, and this funding will improve our ability to do precisely that. To have the support of pioneering organizations like Visa and Blockchain Capital is a validation of Anchorage’s vision for the emerging economy of digital assets”.
The new funding will be used to set up and develop their own custody service. Anchorage intends to offer the support of this service to all digital assets, as well as to integrate their offer with other financial services companies in order to improve auditing and compliance.
Terry Angelos, SVP and global head of fintech at Visa, said:
“This investment is consistent with Visa’s global strategy to partner with and invest in emerging fintech companies. We’re pleased to add Anchorage to our growing investment portfolio”.
Anchorage has been designed and built to be ready for the next generation of cryptocurrencies. The custody solution, in fact, has already been included in the Libra Association, the entity created by Facebook to manage and develop Libra, which was announced last month.
The old concept of Cold Wallet does not meet the requirements of institutional investors, according to Monica. Users want to be able to vote and make governance decisions in various protocols such as Maker and Tezos, for example.
“They want to help the protocol succeed; they can’t do that if their keys are just buried in the backyard”.
Other investors include Blockchain Capital. Bart Stephens, co-founder and managing partner, reported:
“We believe Anchorage is the safest place to hold digital assets, having modernized crypto custody beyond physical cold storage with advanced security engineering. We are leading this investment because we believe Anchorage will have a transformative impact on the financial world”.
