Startup Anchorage raises $40M Series B funding round for multi-biometric crypto vault

Startup multi-biometric cryptocurrency vault provider Anchorage has received $40 million in a Series B investment round to accelerate the growth of crypto finance with its username and password-free technology, TechCrunch reports.

The investment round was led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Visa and Andreessen Horowitz, and follows a $17 million Series A when it came out of stealth at the beginning of this year.

Anchorage’s founders engineered Square’s first encrypted card reader, as well as Docker containers used by Microsoft, and the company is part of Facebook’s Libra Association. The Anchorage cryptocurrency vault checks multiple physical and behavioral biometrics with AI, tracks network signals and employs human reviewers to validate cryptocurrency transactions. A similar process is used to register a new device or change permissions. Anchorage offers end-to-end insurance coverage for transactions, and also requires withdrawals to be approved by the client’s other employees, according to the report.

The company says its work is focused on building financial plumbing to keep other companies’ operations running smoothly, and that it looks at Visa as a model.

Anchorage stores cryptocurrency “hot,” or on devices connected to the internet, allowing cryptocurrency holders to participate in governance and other activities more easily. Private keys are generated and stored in secure hardware, and never exposed at any point in their life-cycle, according to Anchorage Co-founder and President Diogo Mónica.

“We believe Anchorage is the safest place to hold digital assets, having modernized crypto custody beyond physical cold storage with advanced security engineering,” says P. Bart Stephens, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Blockchain Capital. “As our industry evolves, a growing number of crypto networks will depend on asset holders’ active participation in staking and governance. Anchorage’s next generation custody solution is ideally positioned to help investors keep up with the future direction of crypto networks. We are leading this investment because we believe Anchorage will have a transformative impact on the financial world.”

Aximetria and the IOTA Foundation each announced the development of new biometric technology to protect cryptocurrency assets this week.

Article Topics

Andreessen Horowitz  |  biometrics  |  cryptocurrency  |  data storage  |  funding  |  multifactor authentication  |  secure transactions