On Monday there were reports in the South Korean press that conglomerate SK Group planned to invest in ConsenSys. Today ConsenSys confirmed that SK Holdings has invested $10 million in a new “opportunity fund” managed by ConsenSys.
“The fund will invest in a wide range of businesses across the blockchain ecosystem, and is the first fund enabling third-party investors to deploy capital alongside ConsenSys,” the emailed statement reads. “We saw this as a great opportunity to partner with SK Holdings Co. and look forward to partnering with other like-minded LPs (limited partners) to invest in emerging web3 infrastructure, products, and platforms around the globe.”
The two parties are no strangers. Last year they signed a collaboration for ConsenSys to work with IT subsidiary SK Corporation C&C where the blockchain technology of choice is Ethereum. Joe Lubin, the ConsenSys founder, is also one of Ethereum’s founders and the company’s efforts are focused around that blockchain.
SK Holdings has a market capitalization of $13.7 billion and is best known as the owner of SK Telecom, semiconductor company SK Hynix and SK Energy.
ConsenSys has been looking for outside sources of capital rumored to be as much as $200 million as reported by The Information. The majority of its $21 million 2018 revenues came from its Solutions division, which provides enterprise blockchain consultancy.
Given ConsenSys’ most significant outlay is likely to be its investment and support of its startups, it makes a lot of sense to create a fund with external investors.
It has been tidying the decks. In May it combined its three venture divisions, ConsenSys Ventures, its Tachyon startup accelerator and ConsenSys Labs. The internally funded Labs portfolio currently boasts 49 companies.
