Symbiont, a smart contracts platform for institutional applications of distributed ledger technology, announced on Wednesday it secured $20 million through its Series B funding round, which was led by Nasdaq Ventures with participation from additional new investors including Galaxy Digital, Citi, and Raptor Group.
Founded in 2013, Symbiont claims it has developed the “market-leading” platform for institutional applications of blockchain technology. The company’s smart contracts enable complex instruments to live their entire lifecycles on a decentralized enterprise blockchain network with end-to-end privacy. Symbiont also revealed institutions are working with it to develop new business lines, as well as increase transparency, reduce risk, and save costs.
While sharing more details about the investment round, Symbiont CEO and Co-founder Mark Smith, stated:
“Closing this round of funding enables us to accelerate investments in our platform and team. Leveraging our financial markets and blockchain technology experience, our anchor partners like Vanguard, Lewis Ranieri, and the NASDAQ will benefit from developing new distributed applications on Assembly, our enterprise blockchain and smart contract platform. Assembly provides the opportunity for new participants to enter the digital asset market and offers existing participants a superior infrastructure on which to build the future of financial markets.”
Gary Offner, Head of Nasdaq Ventures, also commented:
“We are committed to discovering and investing in innovative technologies to help build our future market infrastructure used by more than 100 marketplaces around the world. Our investment will also include the integration of Symbiont’s enterprise blockchain and smart contract platform into the Nasdaq Financial Framework. We are pleased to support this important, growing area for creating unique institutional applications of blockchain technology.”
Symbiont added it is planning to use the new funds to accelerate deployments across multiple business verticals including Data Management, Mortgages, Private Equity, and Syndicated Loans. In addition to the investment, Nasdaq will explore new business opportunities to utilize Symbiont’s enterprise blockchain and smart contract platform, Assembly, with existing and new clients that are seeking smart contract and tokenization solutions.
The Series B funding round investment comes less than two years after Medici Ventures, a major blockchain investor, completed its investment in Symbiont. As previously reported, as part of the relationship between Medici Ventures and Symbiont, both companies now collaborate on strategic projects involving both Medici Ventures and its parent company, Overstock.com Common Shares (NASDAQ:OSTK) / Series A Preferred (Medici Ventures’ t0 platform : OSTKP) / Series B Preferred (OTCQX:OSTBP).