Blockchain -based securities startup Harbor secured $28 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firms in a recent fundraising event.
Founders Fund led the strategic funding round and was joined by scores of new investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Pantera Capital. The firm’s existing investors - Craft Ventures, Vy Capital, and Valor Equity Partners - also participated in the fundraising round. The names of other first time investors include Future Perfect Ventures, 1confirmation, Abstract Ventures, and Signia Venture Partners.
The firm's promising business model also lured many angel investors from the tech hub including Nicolas Berggruen of Berggruen Holdings, Napoleon Ta of Founders Fund, and Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital.
This is Harbor’s second successful fundraising event, as in the Series A round in February, the firm raised $10 million.
Commenting on the successful fundraising round, Founders Fund’s partner Napoleon Ta said: “Capital formation is the killer app of blockchains, but a lot of investors and institutions are waiting on the sidelines for asset-backed securities like real estate, private investment funds and fine art to be tokenized before jumping in.”
“It's only a matter of time, and we think Harbor has the right approach to solving the compliance challenges that will catalyze this monumental shift to the tokenization of traditional assets,” he added.
What is Harbor?
Harbor has tapped into a complex yet lucrative market with its blockchain-based solutions. The firm sells tokenized IRL private securities to clients all over the world in exchange for fiat currencies.
The traditional approach of acquiring these assets are very complex and tangled with legal barriers. The market often only allows high net worth individuals and is also associated with hefty legal fees. Moreover, any anomalies by the businesses to follow the SEC guidelines in acquiring these securities might attract a criminal sentence of up to 20 years.
Harbor offers a rigid platform to acquire these assets based on smart contracts, which will decline any illegal transaction. Moreover, the firm follows security compliances with its KYC/AML processes.
"Tokenizing private securities allows issuers to lock up capital, without locking up investors," said Joshua Stein, CEO of Harbor. "The prospect of greatly increased Liquidity for private securities will enhance capital formation, create new investment opportunities and support economic growth. Harbor is the enabling technology platform for securities issuers and broker-dealers to compliantly tokenize private securities."
