Blockchain technology startup Factom has raised another $400,000 in seed funding through Kuala Innovations, which bought a 3.64% stake in the company, implying a total valuation of roughly $11 million.
Factom is looking to help businesses and governments Leverage the blockchain as a new way of recordkeeping for various applications such as medical records, property titles, legal documents and financial systems. In May, it announced a project with the Honduran government to restore integrity to its land title system.
The objective is to create permanent, decentralized and tamper-proof record systems by leveraging the blockchain to build an "immutable data layer". CEO Peter Kirby believes that adoption of such ledger systems may be only a matter of time. "Once you understand that immutable record keeping is possible, it's going to become a must-have," he told Finance Magnates.
Bitcoin's blockchain technology is being explored for a plethora of applications beyond the bitcoin currency, including securities settlement, currency transfers and the prospective Internet of Things. Factom is developing its own distributed ledger scheme that according to its white paper, is positioned for interoperability with Bitcoin 1.0, Bitcoin 2.0 and other ledger systems.
The startup raised $1.2 million through the crowdsale of its 'Factoid' tokens, or software licenses, in April. In July, it raised another $1 million through a crowdfunding campaign, which at the time, implied a total valuation of $12.8 million.
Kuala Co-Chairman Jim Mellon said that the Kuala Board believes that the round "comes ahead of a significant value shift for Factom" with its anticipated Series A round in the first half of 2016.
Kuala also indicated that Factom is "negotiating terms of engagement with a number of large US companies" including those in the banking, insurance and healthcare industries.
