BitGo has gotten a major injection of capital to grow its enterprise-grade storage and security operations.
$12 million of Series A financing was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures. Earlier BitGo investors, angel investors and leading industry executives are also reported to have participated in the round. New investors include Radar Partners, Founders Fund, Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Opportunity Corp, Liberty City Ventures, Crypto Currency Partners and A-Grade Investments.
Stratton Sclavos, partner at Radar Partners and CEO of Verisign during 1995-2007, compares Bitcoin to the early days of the internet from a security perspective:
“Bitcoin has opened a new frontier much like the advent of the commercial Internet in 1994. This new industry simultaneously promises endless possibilities while facing meaningful security threats. We believe that Bitcoin’s inherent advantages over existing financial services infrastructure, combined with BitGo’s best-in-class security platform, will accelerate the adoption of digital money as fundamentally as the Internet changed global communication and publishing.”
Will O'Brien, BitGo's co-founder and CEO, believes that a more secure Bitcoin will help it grow at the "speed and scale comparable to the Internet itself."
The company's solutions aim to emulate the security structure found in large enterprises or even banks.
In 2013, BitGo was the first to launch multi-signature wallets. Their "2-of-3-key" multi-signature wallet leverages both BIP16 and BIP32 industry standards. Traditional wallets offer only a single key, allowing for a single point of attack. The "2-of-3-key" scheme is compared to a bank safety deposit box, which reduces the risk of theft significantly but still allows for relatively easy access. They are also launching a "cold key" solution where one or more of the keys are stored offline.
Also offered are enterprise specific security functions like user management, velocity tracking and the enforcement of treasury policies and spending limits.
The funding ranks near the top in size with other recent rounds, such as the $30 million raised by BitPay, who has endorsed BitGo's solution for its merchants.
