Blockchain consortium R3 CEV has only managed to pique the interest of its member banks to invest $59 million in the company’s first funding round, less than half its overall target, a person close to the deal told Reuters on Friday.
R3, a New York-based startup, is seeking to raise $150 million from its members and strategic investors to fund its activities focused on developing blockchain-based technology for the financial services sector.
Of those original members, 36 have expressed indications of interest through stakes ranging from $3.5 million to $1 million each, the person said, declining to be named because the fundraising is private.
It had originally sought to raise $200 million, offering prospective investors a 90 percent stake in a new entity it would have run but restructured the deal to $150 million in return for a 60 percent stake in itself.
But now with Goldman Sachs and Santander pulling out of R3 along with some others staying in but declining to invest, the Corda project will be running on half tank and a little leaner than they expected.
Corda’s current development team consists of:
- CTO Richard Gendal Brown, formerly the executive architect for banking innovation at IBM.
- Chief engineer James Carlyle, the former chief engineer for personal and corporate banking architecture at Barclays.
- Lead platform engineer Mike Hearn, an ex-senior software engineer at Google and one of the first bitcoin users.
- Architecture consultant Ian Grigg, inventor of the Ricardian Contract and co-inventor of triple entry accounting.
- Head of research Tim Swanson, market researcher who has authored a study on bitcoin.
