The international payment services firm PayPal revealed its intentions for the blockchain technology space, after it was discovered in an SEC file that it had invested a million in the Startup Cambridge Blockchain, a technology company of the chain of blocks.
Cambridge Blockchain CEO Matthew Commons said about the development:
“Our service helps expedite the fulfillment of digital identity while giving customers control over their identity data. We are honored by PayPal’s vote of confidence and look forward to your support and guidance.”
CoinDesk reports that neither PayPal nor Cambridge Blockchain have disclosed the amount of the investment. Which was offered during an extension of a Series A financing round. The total capital raised for almost a year seems to be about $ 10.5 million. Which includes funds from investors such as HCM Capital and Digital Currency Group.
A PayPal spokesperson said:
“We made an investment in Cambridge Blockchain because they are applying blockchain for digital identity in a way that we believe could benefit financial services companies like PayPal. Our investment will allow us to explore possible collaborations to take advantage of Blockchain’s technology.”
Two years of works of Cambridge Blockchainy and PayPal
According to the report, Cambridge Blockchainy and PayPal have been working very closely for the past year. First, the latter was one of the new companies selected in a Fintech Europe 2018 accelerator program sponsored by PayPal, and towards the end of 2018 it started working directly with PayPal’s corporate team in San José.
Cambridge Blockchain, a member of the Decentralized Identity Foundation, is building an identity service based on blockchain that follows the laws of Customer Knowledge (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) to help customers open accounts with financial institutions.
Startup uses the blockchain to store and share data, and PayPal may be looking for this service to be more efficient.
This being the first PayPal investment in a Blockchain company, it is a very important step that is in line with the emerging motive of the main established entities that consider the Blockchain technology. Such as the New York Times and the payment processing system. rival VISA.
The use of Blockchain in identity systems is a hot space, which Facebook and Microsoft are considering.
Also published on Medium.