Fireblocks, which provides digital asset custody, transfer, and settlement infrastructure for customers such as banks and exchanges, closed a $133 million Series C round driven by investment companies Coatue, Ribbit, and Stripes.
Moreover, the round also came with strategic investments from major clients Silicon Valley Bank and BNY Mellon and financing from crypto investing mainstays such as Fred Ehrsam’s Paradigm and Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital. Silicon Valley Bank and BNY Mellon are among the world’s largest investment banks with $2 trillion assets under management.
A Series C is a fundraising round for successful firms that need to scale up swiftly. It describes the situation at Fireblocks, which gained $30 million in a November 2020 Series B. For the last three quarters, Fireblocks has almost doubled its client projections.
CEO and co-founder Michael Shaulov say that they are the critical infrastructure for customers at the end of the day, and if the system doesn’t work or they cannot basically use the system, they cannot do transactions.
Fireblocks s going to double its size by hiring another 100 people
According to Shaulov, the first order of business with the capital infusion is to double its size by hiring 100 people. He says they are not going to hire just engineers but for client service reps. He remembered waiting for months in 2017 to open an account with an exchange and not getting any client support.
He says that those are things that are unacceptable given their prominent position in the industry. “The most significant thing about this funding is our ability to continue to provide the quality service that we are well known,” – says Shaulov.
The investors are excited with the current state of Fireblocks. According to Stripes Group founder and managing partner Ken Fox, Fireblocks has built the most robust technology stack for anyone looking to get into the digital asset business. He added that Fireblocks leads the breakthroughs in MPC wallets, settlement networks, and access to DeFi and tokenization services.
