Former Meta executive launches Lightspark

Former Meta government David Marcus, head of Facebook’s stablecoin Diem efforts is launching a brand new cryptocurrency payments startup on the Lightning Network known as Lightspark. The initial capital raise was co-led by a16z and Paradigm with participation from Thrive Capital, Coatue, Felix Capital, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Zeev Ventures and others, per a LinkedIn post. Sources told Bloomberg the full funding raised was roughly $175 million.

At Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Marcus headed a team building a new stablecoin initial called Libra, then Diem, beside a crypto wallet, Novi. He started with the company in 2014, heading up Messenger.

Lightspark is creating a Lightning Network infrastructure

per Sriram Krishnan and Chris Dixon, partners at Andreessen Horowitz, they at a16z started investment in bitcoin in 2013, many years before we tend to have an ardent crypto fund. We’ve forever been huge believers in bitcoin, its distinctive history and its foundational role in crypto. The statement conjointly states that It’s laborious to amplify the expansion and impact bitcoin has had since Satoshi revealed his paper in October 2008. It’s currently the monetary system in 2 countries. It finds mentions in songs, TV shows and movies. Lots of individuals hold bitcoin as their initial entry into the crypto ecosystem.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Lightspark is developing infrastructure for the blockchain protocol Lightning Network, with the goal of boosting the speed and potency of the cryptocurrency protocol. Lightspark is targeting the technology and isn’t getting to develop its own stablecoin or token.

Details are yet to be disclosed

David Marcus took to Twitter to announce the launch of his new venture. He affirmed that Lightspark would leverage Bitcoin and therefore the Lightning network. The Lightspark team includes different ex-employees from Meta, besides Marcus, who left the corporate once Meta’s stablecoin project repeatedly didn’t launch. Meta’s Diem stablecoin project was oversubscribed to Silvergatein a $200 million deal in January.

Marcus did not reveal the small print of the project or what proportion valuation his firm are seeking within the funding round. Marcus aforesaid that the company would explore, build, and expand Bitcoin capabilities and use cases via a team ‘to dive deeper into the lightning network.

several of the Diem executives stirred to a16z Crypto, one amongst the lead investors within the Lightspark project. The Diem project has continued in the form of Aptos, a brand new blockchain proclaimed by the previous Diem developers in February. Meta, on the other hand, is specializing in group action NFT support on its Instagram and Facebook app.