Cryptocurrency crimefighter Chainalysis is set to raise $100 million in a Series C round that values it at $1 billion, Forbes reports on Friday. The private valuation means the NY company finally attains the ‘unicorn’ title nearly six years after the launch of its operations.
Behind the latest cash injection was Addition, a new venture capital firm led by Lee Fixel, a former top investor at Tiger Global Management. Addition, which raised $1.3 billion in June to invest in tech start-ups, was joined by previous investors Accel, Benchmark, and Ribbit.
The new funding comes barely four months after Chainalysis raised an additional $13 million to expand the company’s Series B round to $49 million. Chainalysis has initially nabbed a $30 million investment in February 2019, led by venture firm Accel, a growth-stage venture capital firm, then raised a further $6 million from two major Japanese investors in April.
“We think that the timing, the market, and the maturity of the crypto space will offer some consolidation, where there might be some inorganic growth that might be on the table,” says Chainalysis CEO and Co-founder, Michael Gronager.
The 75-person startup, which has offices in New York, Washington DC and Copenhagen, provides financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and law enforcement with a platform to detect and investigate cryptocurrency money laundering, fraud and compliance violations.
Additionally, Chainalysis is selling its bitcoin-tracing technology and compliance software to banks and brokers to monitor and link digital identities to cryptocurrencies.
The blockchain intelligence platform said last month it has grown the number of its customers by 65 percent over a yearly basis thanks to higher demand on its investigative technology from public sector agencies. Without revealing the exact figures, the crypto tracer also stated that it had doubled its quarterly revenues during the July-September period.
US authorities disclosed earlier this year that they leveraged Chainalysis investigative assistance to seize more than $1 billion worth of bitcoin associated with Silk Road, the shady dark web marketplace that it took offline in 2013.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it was assisted in seizing the Bitcoins by Chainalysis to identify and investigate the cryptocurrency wallets used in that case. The department estimates that Silk Road generated around 600,000 Bitcoins in commissions for facilitating narcotics sales of illegal drugs, weapons and other nefarious goods.
