Alan Howard’s cryptocurrency exchange, Elwood, has secured $70 million in a Series A funding round at a $500 million valuation.
Goldman Sachs and Barclays Invest in Elwood
The investment round was led by banking giant Goldman Sachs and venture fund Dawn Capital. Other participants included Barclays, BlockFi Ventures, Chimera Ventures, Commerz Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Flow Traders and Galaxy Digital Ventures.
Founded by British billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard in 2018, Elwood is a global fintech firm that provides digital asset trading infrastructure to institutional investors such as Bloomberg and BlackRock.
The company plans to use the fund to improve and expand its product offerings as well as scale its operations to better serve its clients.
“The rich mix of investors participating in this raise reaffirms the movement of financial institutions working closely with their native digital asset technology providers. Together, we aim to provide broader mass market involvement in digital assets and cryptocurrency,” James Stickland, CEO of Elwood, said.
The funding shows continued acceptance of crypto by major traditional financial institutions.
Mathew McDermott, Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, said the investment in Elwood shows the bank’s “commitment to digital assets.”
As part of its commitment, Goldman has also made some crypto moves in recent times. Shortly after processing its first over-the-counter (OTC) crypto transaction, the Wall Street bank offered its first ever Bitcoin-backed loan to its client.
Large Banks Get Into Crypto
In recent times, major banking institutions have joined the crypto industry through investments or by offering digital asset services to clients.
In March, investment bank Cowen launched a digital asset unit dubbed “Cowen Digital” that will offer institutional clients spot crypto trading services.
Recently, private banking and asset management group LGT Bank partnered with Switzerland’s SEBA Bank to offer cryptocurrency investment services to private clients.
Source: https://coinfomania.com/alan-howards-crypto-exchange-raises-70m/#utm_source=rss&%23038;utm_medium=rss&%23038;utm_campaign=alan-howards-crypto-exchange-raises-70m