BlockCypher collects over $3.1 mln seed

San Mateo, California-based BlockCypher, a block chain web services startup, has secured over $3.1 million in seed funding. The investors in the round included Foundation Capital, New Enterprise Associates, AME Cloud Ventures, Tim Draper, Upside Partnership, Streamlined Ventures and Fenox Venture Capital.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN MATEO – January 14, 2015 – BlockCypher, the block chain web services company, announced today it has raised over $3.1 million in an over-subscribed seed funding round. The funds will be used to expand geographic coverage, continue building innovative block chain services, and provide deeper analytics. BlockCypher is also announcing the release of an open-source block explorer to showcase four different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and BlockCypher Testnet.

“Most of the time in software you see improvements or iterations on existing frameworks but very seldom do you see brand new technology like block chains,” said Catheryne Nicholson, CEO and Co-founder, BlockCypher.

BlockCypher Web Services enable developers to easily build, monitor and secure all block chain applications. They dramatically reduce barriers in building Bitcoin applications and foster block chain innovations which benefit the whole ecosystem. Currently, BlockCypher processes half a million events per day and they have customers spanning the world. One of BlockCypher’s signature products, zero-confirmation confidence factor, allows the processing of Bitcoin transactions within seconds instead of hours.

Brian Gamido, CEO of Palarin, a Philippines remittance company, chose BlockCypher for the company’s block chain services. “BlockCypher’s cloud approach allows teams to focus on application functionality rather than hosting Bitcoin infrastructure. I like their ability to quickly innovate and integrate cutting-edge block chain features into their solution.”
Investors in BlockCypher’s first fundraise feature leaders in technology, Bitcoin, and finance, such as Foundation Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), AME Cloud Ventures (Jerry Yang), Tim Draper, Upside Partnership, Streamlined Ventures, and Fenox Venture Capital. The round also includes the first women investors in block chain infrastructure, Jesse Draper and Shawn Byers.

Investor Comments on the News:
“BlockCypher has built the only cloud-optimized block chain technology layer, allowing developers and large enterprises to easily build and adopt block chain technology. We are thrilled to partner with the team as they enable and power the next wave of block chain applications,” said Rick Yang, Partner, NEA.

“We think one of the most promising areas in Bitcoin is in the block chain technology layer; it’s where the greatest innovation is happening and it’s at the core of BlockCypher’s expertise,” said Charles Moldow, General Partner, Foundation Capital.

“Investing in women entrepreneurs is the best way to increase the number of women in technology. When girls have women founders as role models, they become founders themselves,” said Jesse Draper, CEO, Valley Girl Ventures. “What BlockCypher is doing with block chain technology will change the world: women must be involved.”

BlockCypher’s co-founders, Matthieu Riou and Nicholson, are seasoned software veterans who have a long history of building large-scale software platforms together. “MITS Fund supported BlockCypher because of the leadership and the team,” said investor Shawn Byers, MITS Fund.

Additional BlockCypher investors include Ben Narasin and TriplePoint Capital, Ken Goldman (CFO Yahoo), Sanjiva Weerawarana (CEO WSO2), VoyLét Capital, Granite Ventures, Boost VC, 500 Startups, Crypto Currency Partners, Michael Liou, and hip hop artist, Nas.

For more information, please visit www.blockcypher.com.
About BlockCypher

BlockCypher, the block chain web services company, is software infrastructure that provides developer tools to easily build and run block chain applications. BlockCypher Web Services power applications reliably and at-scale for enterprise-level deployments. Founded in 2014, the company is headquartered in San Mateo, CA. For more information, please visit www.blockcypher.com.