Elliptic – a London-based blockchain analytics firm – has secured $60 million in Series C funding led by Japanese investment manager SoftBank Group and American multinational Wells Fargo. The funds will be used to accelerate cryptocurrency adoption by global financial markets.
Elliptic announced the disclosure of a $60 million fundraising in a press release on October 11th. The company plans to use the funds to expand its operations overseas and promote investment for its global network.
“At Elliptic, we help financial institutions, from crypto exchanges to the world’s leading banks, embrace cryptoassets more safely. This fundraising round is an endorsement of the opportunity for cryptoassets in the financial industry – and our absolutely critical role in the ecosystem.”
SoftBank participated in the round through its Vision Fund 2, which backs billion-dollar startups. Other investors are Wells Fargo, SBI Group, Digital Currency Group, AlbionVC, Paladin Capital Group, Octopus Ventures, and Evolution Equity Partners.
Between 2019 and 2020, Elliptic secured $28 million in Series B. With this new fundraising, the firm aims to expand its global team of experts, especially in the United States.
“We’ve already grown, as a team, by nearly 50% this year and will use this investment to grow even faster. By the end of 2022, we will grow to more than 200 Elliptites globally.”
As large institutions engage with cryptocurrencies, so does their demand for a secure and safe ecosystem. This is the reason why Mastercard acquired blockchain intelligence company CipherTrace to provide anti-money laundering and fraud protection solutions.
One of Elliptic’s goals, the PR informed, is to become the number one choice for institutional investors seeking blockchain analysis and data firms. This is partly due to growing regulatory pressure on the digital assets ecosystem to comply with existing laws worldwide.
Elliptic is one of the largest crypto and blockchain analytics firms. The company offers various techniques and tools to detect illicit crypto activity, like mapping real-world signals to pseudonymous entities and events as well as providing risk insights to traditional financial companies.
It is also responsible for helping discover malicious software and tools provided by darknet participants. The firm collaborated with other parties to identify Antinalysis, an online tool that allowed merchants to launder Bitcoin in a darknet marketplace.