The opportunities that exist for blockchain seem to be growing on a daily basis and an increasing number of financial services institutions and technology companies are placing their bets on blockchain and bitcoin. As a result, many blockchain startups have been gaining popularity and funding in recent months. One of the newest to receive funding from all the hype is Axoni.
In a Series B round of funding, Axoni raised more than $32 million. The funding was primarily raised by Goldman Sachs and Nyca Partners. In addition, large institutions such as Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan, CitiGroup, Franklin Templeton, and Digital Currency Group also contributed to the funding. In total, funding has reached over $55 million through these investors and multiple rounds of funding. In addition to the support of these large institutions, Axion also has key players from two of those companies on their Board of Directors: Goldman Sachs Managing Director, Ashwin Gupta, and Wells Fargo’s Head of Market Structure and Electronic Trading Services, C. Thomas Richardson.
With the funds, Axoni will be able to help facilitate its large infrastructure projects. The largest of these projects deals with the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation’s effort to move its entire Trade Information Warehouse to blockchain. As a whole, the company is looking to move its $11 trillion platform to a custom-built blockchain, and with the increase in funding, Axion is that much closer to being able to provide it.
In addition to moving the infrastructure forward, Axion plans to use the capital to increase staff and help the clients they currently serve. At this point in time, they only have 55 employees on staff. The funds will allow them to make a sizeable and sustainable increase in their current numbers and hire engineers to complete the legwork needed for infrastructure and current client support. For the clients they already serve, they are close to finishing three platforms.
Axion itself is still not a profitable company, but promises a solid return in the future. The company was only founded in 2016, by Greg Schvey and his brother Jeff Schvey. Amazingly, the two are 31 and 33 years old respectively. Greg Schvey reported that they really have been prioritizing growth rather than profit in their first years of existence, which is why the company is still not profitable. However, the two have been able to maintain and attract a solid client base due to their low turnover rate, resilience in the face of adversity, and overall aggressiveness.
In their current project portfolio, DTCC is their largest client. In January 2017, DTCC announced that they had selected Axoni’s Axcore blockchain to re-platform their Trade Information Warehouse. The platform that will be used by DTCC is expected to enter an testing cycle later in this quarter, which will continue into next year.
