Yesterday blockchain firm Data Gumbo announced the first close in its Series B funding round of $4 million, bringing Data Gumbo’s total funding to $14.8 million. The Series B is led by a new investor, venture capital firm L37. Returning investors include Equinor Ventures and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, which led Data Gumbo’s Series A funding round.
Data Gumbo plans to use the capital to fund new projects, expand globally, and to mature GumboNet, its blockchain network. Data Gumbo CEO and Founder, Andrew Bruce, highlights the importance of capitalizing upon the increased demand for GumboNet. He believes “this funding will solidify Data Gumbo’s leadership position realizing transactional certainty through smart contracts.”
In discussing L37’s interest in Data Gumbo, Partner Kemal Farid says “Data Gumbo is the category leader for industrial smart contracts, which is an inevitable next step in the digital transformation of the oil and gas industry.”
Returning investors include Equinor Ventures, a subsidiary of Norwegian state-owned oil firm Equinor, and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, part of the world’s largest oil producer and most profitable company.
Data Gumbo plans to capture more market share across the various capital-intensive industries, i.e. construction, oil and gas, manufacturing, and mining. So far, it’s slowly but steadily been achieving this goal.
A year ago, it landed a water management project with the OOC Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium, which includes Equinor alongside numerous oil majors such as Chevron, Shell and Exxon.
Seven months ago, Air Drilling Associates (ADA) announced it adopted the GumboNet blockchain to automate execution and invoice payments of its integrated project management contracts. ADA provides drilling and project management services to the petroleum and geothermal sector.
Data Gumbo then expanded into the construction industry, partnering with PrairieDog Venture Partners to streamline capital projects using smart contracts. PrairieDog is to leverage Data Gumbo’s blockchain smart contracts to automate payments, optimize operations to reduce costs, and provide a shared platform for contract participants.
Data Gumbo has even ventured into the 3D printing sector, yesterday announcing a contract with Norwegian deep tech firm Fieldmade. GumboNet will be used to verify the origin of Fieldmade’s 3D product designs and materials to produce on-site parts in these machinery intensive sectors.
