London-based cryptocurrency trading platform Elwood has closed a $70m (£57m) Series A funding round co-led by Goldman Sachs and Dawn Capital.
Elwood is a platform for the trading of digital assets specifically designed to support institutional investors, including corporations, neobanks, hedge funds and more.
“Elwood was established to meet the needs of institutions seeking to secure exposure to digital assets by providing a robust and transparent platform which delivers the highest standards expected in traditional finance,” said Elwood CEO James Stickland.
The platform was designed to simplify the process for financial institutions to grow their involvement in digital assets. It provides access to global crypto markets as well as analytics for clients.
Other participants joining the financial powerhouse lead investors in this funding round include Barclays, Blockfi Ventures, Chimera Ventures, CommerzVentures, Digital Currency Group, Flow Traders, and Galaxy Digital Ventures.
“The rich mix of investors participating in this raise reaffirms the movement of financial institutions working closely with their native digital asset technology providers,” Stickland said.
“Together, we aim to provide broader mass market involvement in digital assets and cryptocurrency.”
Elwood’s group of investors notably includes a number of more traditional financial institutions, perhaps signalling a sign of greater cooperation between cryptoasset firms and more conventional finance.
The two parallel but sometimes overlapping sectors have previously been seen competing both for customers and in a ‘war for talent’ in recruitment.
“As institutional demand for cryptocurrency rises, we have been actively broadening our market presence and capabilities to cater for client demand,” said Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs.
“Our investment in Elwood demonstrates our continued commitment to digital assets and we look forward to partnering to expand our capabilities.”
The $70m investment for the cryptocurrency platform comes at a difficult time for the rest of the industry, with the global crypto market seeing a major dive in value, dropping as much as $800bn in one month.
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