BlackRock leads Securitize’s $47 million funding round

The companies are also partnering to issue the BUIDL fund on the blockchain

01.05.2024 - 15:02

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2 min

What’s new? BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm with $10 trillion in assets under management, has led a $47 million funding round for digital asset manager Securitize. As part of the investment, BlackRock’s global head of strategic ecosystem partnerships Joseph Chalom will join Securitize’s board of directors.

Fortune’s material

What else is known? Also participating in Securitize’s fundraising round were investment firm Hamilton Lane, financial technology firm Tradeweb Markets, and asset manager ParaFi Capital.

Joseph Chalom called the investment another step in BlackRock’s digital asset strategy. “We believe that tokenization has the potential to drive a significant transformation in capital markets infrastructure,” the senior executive added.

Securitize, founded in 2017 by Carlos Domingo and Jamie Finn, issues digital versions of real securities on blockchain. It raised $48 million in 2021 from Morgan Stanley Bank and crypto venture capital firm Blockchain Capital, whose representatives also sit on its board of directors.

In March, Securitize partnered with BlackRock to launch the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), a tokenized investment fund based on the Ethereum blockchain. BUIDL has already raised $375 million.

Securitize previously launched tokenized private credit funds from investment firms Hamilton Lane and KKR, and in 2022 launched a regulated exchange that allows investors to buy and sell various securities.

Domingo said the new investment will focus on extending the terms of the company’s existing licenses, as well as exploring opportunities to launch tokens on other blockchains such as Aptos. Securitize is also exploring the possibility of obtaining a special broker-dealer license from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in addition to its existing Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker-dealer license.

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