Singapore's Fireblocks closes Series E, hits $8b valuation
Fireblocks, a US and Singapore-based blockchain services provider that aims to “help every business become a crypto business,” has raised a USD 550m Series E round at a valuation of USD 8bn.
It follows a USD 310m Series D in mid-2021 at a valuation of USD 2bn. The company, which has raised about USD 1bn in total since its inception in June 2018, now claims to be the highest valued digital asset infrastructure provider globally.
The Series E was led by US-based D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital. There were at least nine new investors in the round, including D1, General Atlantic, Index Ventures, Mammoth, Altimeter Capital, Iconiq Strategic Partners, Canapi Ventures, ParaFi Capital, and CapitalG, formerly known as Google Capital.
Spark also co-led the Series D alongside Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Coatue Management, DRW Venture Capital, and SCB 10X, the corporate VC arm of Thailand’s Siam Commerce Bank. Previous backers include Ribbit Capital, Bank of New York Mellon, Tenaya Capital, and Paradigm, a crypto sector specialist based in the US.
Fireblocks describes itself as a pioneer of multi-party computation technology that helps clients move, store, and issue their own digital assets. Its platform supports more than 20 blockchains and 1,000 cryptocurrencies, as well as digital asset use-cases across trading, gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), securities, payments, and decentralised finance (defi).
The company does not provide outsourcing services. The idea is to help clients build up internal systems at their own speed, reducing dependency on third-party players. The customer base, which has grown from 500 to 800 in the past year, is a mix of crypto-native and traditional institutions, including banks, exchanges, and asset managers.
“Everything that’s happening at the cross-section of defi, NFTs, gaming, streaming, and entertainment will be the biggest emerging use cases in the next year and a half,” Michael Shaulov CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, said in a statement.
“People need to think about infrastructure that’s future-proof to layer more providers into the stack. You want to be agile and consider whether the platform you’re selecting offers the security, custody, and control over assets that can apply to these use-cases.”
Fireblocks claims to support 15% of daily crypto transaction volumes with its infrastructure. Assets under custody currently stand at about USD 45bn, and some USD 2trn in assets have been transferred.
The fresh capital will be used to expand the client base and invest in innovation across defi, NFTs, and payments. Business development is also expected in gaming, trading, and digital securities.
The company frames its growth as a demonstration of the accelerating mainstream uptake of blockchain-based financial and business models. It flags research by Gartner suggesting one-fifth of major organisations will use digital currencies by 2024 and a survey by Visa finding that 25% of small businesses in nine countries plan to accept crypto payments in 2022.
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