Natwest’s former Head of Emerging Technology Richard Crook founded LAB577 in 2018. The company is best known for its institutional tokenization platform Digital Asset Shared Ledger (DASL), based on R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain. The platform is used by the likes of SEBA Bank for token issuance. Crook becomes BCB’s Chief Operating Officer, LAB577’s Fuzz [Pezeshkpour] takes on the role of BCB Group CTO with Mark Simpson as Head of Product Solutions.
The two companies had an existing relationship, and LAB577 was already a small shareholder in BCB Group. LAB577’s DASL is integrated with BLINC, BCB Group’s instant settlement network for crypto and fiat currencies.
Crook’s startup had almost £2 million ($2.7m) cash in the bank as of 31 December, and the company raised no outside funds and had four full-time staff, all hailing from Natwest. The terms of the deal were not shared, but yesterday almost £6 million ($8.1m) of ordinary shares were allocated by BCB Group. In contrast, the shares issued for the venture capital funding were preferred stock. The four staff hold equal amounts of stock.
“As one of LAB577’s first clients, we’ve always been in awe of their ability to deliver innovative blockchain tech in a way that plays well in both TradFi and DeFi,” said BCB Group Founder and CEO Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie. “We are thrilled to bring Richard and team fully into the group where we can build stuff the industry needs much more closely and quickly together.”
Last week’s BCB funding was co-led by Foundation Capital and included PayU (part of Naspers), Digital Currency Group, Circle, BACKED VC, Nexo, Wintermute, Menai Financial Group, Tokentus Investment, Cowa, Profluent Ventures and LAUNCHub Ventures. Existing investors North Island Ventures, Blockchain.com Ventures, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Pantera and L1 Digital also participated in the round.
Today BCB Group which provides business accounts and trading services to cryptocurrency institutions, announced it bought blockchain startup LAB577. The acquisition follows a $60 million funding round announced by BCB Group last week. The holding company is based in the United Kingdom with offices in Switzerland.
Natwest’s former Head of Emerging Technology Richard Crook founded LAB577 in 2018. The company is best known for its institutional tokenization platform Digital Asset Shared Ledger (DASL), based on R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain. The platform is used by the likes of SEBA Bank for token issuance. Crook becomes BCB’s Chief Operating Officer, LAB577’s Fuzz [Pezeshkpour] takes on the role of BCB Group CTO with Mark Simpson as Head of Product Solutions.
The two companies had an existing relationship, and LAB577 was already a small shareholder in BCB Group. LAB577’s DASL is integrated with BLINC, BCB Group’s instant settlement network for crypto and fiat currencies.
Crook’s startup had almost £2 million ($2.7m) cash in the bank as of 31 December, and the company raised no outside funds and had four full-time staff, all hailing from Natwest. The terms of the deal were not shared, but yesterday almost £6 million ($8.1m) of ordinary shares were allocated by BCB Group. In contrast, the shares issued for the venture capital funding were preferred stock. The four staff hold equal amounts of stock.
“As one of LAB577’s first clients, we’ve always been in awe of their ability to deliver innovative blockchain tech in a way that plays well in both TradFi and DeFi,” said BCB Group Founder and CEO Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie. “We are thrilled to bring Richard and team fully into the group where we can build stuff the industry needs much more closely and quickly together.”
Last week’s BCB funding was co-led by Foundation Capital and included PayU (part of Naspers), Digital Currency Group, Circle, BACKED VC, Nexo, Wintermute, Menai Financial Group, Tokentus Investment, Cowa, Profluent Ventures and LAUNCHub Ventures. Existing investors North Island Ventures, Blockchain.com Ventures, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Pantera and L1 Digital also participated in the round.
