Netki Raises $3.5 Million to ‘Humanize’ Bitcoin

More capital injections continue to take place in the digital currency landscape as the blockchain name wallet and identity provider Netki has just raised US$3.5 million in a seed funding round. O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) led the investment round with the company showing optimism within the growth of Netki’s architecture.

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Crypto Investments Keep Coming

Netki founded on July 14, 2014, by Justin Newton and Dawn Newton is celebrating its anniversary with fresh new capital to expand the business. The newly acquired $3.5 million was funded by OATV, Digital Currency Group, Bitfinex, Plug and Play, the Husseini Group, Colle Capital, and other investors. Netki CEO Justin Newton says the funding will be used to continue the company’s growth and build infrastructure. Investors OATV are excited about Netki’s advancements being the lead investor at the event.

Managing director, Mark Jacobsen, said in the announcement:

Blockchain is an emerging transformative technology, and we know that creating and scaling standards will be a key component to its success. The combination of Netki’s seasoned leadership team, proven track record, and focus on cross blockchain infrastructure puts them in the perfect position to help enterprises tackle existing challenges surrounding identity and ease.

Netki’s protocol will allow its user base to easily verify, and exchange digital identity by enabling its immutable blockchain-based platform to strengthen these use cases. The company’s wallet service is also made to be more simple with users generating a name associated with their wallet rather than a 16 digit Bitcoin address.

Financial services complying with regulatory standards can implement Netki services utilizing the ability to track and verify digital identity, the company says. This includes KYC/AML requirements, traditional banking verification, and overall security of digital identity free from vulnerability. During the announcement CEO and co-founder Justin Newton told Bitcoin.com:

“We’re proud to have OATV leading our round. This funding will allow us to invest in our open source tools and support our growing global customer base.”

“OATV and its affiliate O’Reilly Media have deeply respected roots in the open source developer community,” adds Newton. “They understand the value of creating standards early on that can be built upon to enable widespread, rapid growth of a nascent technology. We are thrilled that Netki is OATV’s first investment in the blockchain space.”

Netki ‘Humanizing’ Bitcoin Addresses

The name wallet provider and identity service has done well for itself over the past two years. Partnering with groups like the central bank of Barbados and companies like Colu, Uphold, Bitt, Bitso, and Overstock.com, the company has made a name for itself with its platform’s technology.

CEO of Bitt, Gabriel Abed, explains why the Netki partnership was important for his business.  Abed:

Partnering with Netki was a crucial step towards humanizing the complex bitcoin addresses. Our customers are the millions of global financially excluded persons, most of which live in developing Nations within the Caribbean. Therefore delivering a simple and easy to use interface was paramount when considering how we would serve our customers.

Now with $3.5 million added to the team’s coffers, Netki’s mission to make cryptocurrencies and identity solutions more “human” will surely get a much-welcomed boost.

What do you think about Netki raising $3.5 million in funding? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Netki, Pixabay

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