Blocko, the company behind blockchain development platform Coinstack, has accumulated a total of 5 billion won (USD $4.49m) in Series B funding with its latest investment from Intervest, Daesung Private Equity and Wonik Investment Partners — following an initial round of 1.5 billion won (USD $1.5m) from Samsung Venture in July last year.
Coinstack was released by Blocko in mid-2015 and offers a blockchain-based development service for various industries. The platform classes itself as ‘middleware’ and lets developers easily create applications with its SDK and consolidated blockchain technology stack.
Blockchain, still unfamiliar to many, is a decentralized digital ledger that records transactions across many computers so that information cannot be altered in anyway retroactively. While bitcoin is the first thing that springs to mind when most people think of blockchain, Coinstack’s technology is already in use by banks and credit card companies such as Lotte Card, and recently signed a contract with Samsung Card. Beyond this, Coinstack is being used for digital certification, electronic voting, and monitoring of public data.
Blocko is also pushing itself into the global market and was included in CB Insights’ market map of Blockchain startups earlier this year. The company was grouped with other well-known international startups such as Factom, Blockcypher, and Gem in the ‘Enterprise Services & Currencies’ category, and was the only company from Korea.
“There aren’t many companies with enterprise blockchain solutions for uses outside of bitcoin transactions or overseas remittance services,” says Intervest Director, Sin Yunho. “Our investment in Blocko reflects how the company’s expertise has been recognized both in Korea and internationally.”
Co-CEO of Blocko, Allan J Kim
Co-CEO of Blocko, Allan J Kim, says that the company will use the latest investment to upgrade Coinstack’s technology further, and create customized solutions that can be quickly, and easily applied in various industries.
“In addition to introducing our technology and products to the finance industry aboard, we also intend to grow into a global company that leads the way in blockchain implementation for all industries,” says Kim.
Blocko is the first Korean company to develop a blockchain-powered “smart contract engine”, and is also active in W3C Blockchain and Hyperledger groups which carry out discussions regarding new technology and standardization for blockchain.
