Last week blockchain startup Spring Labs announced a $23 million Series A funding round led by GreatPoint Ventures. Other participants included August Capital, General Motors Ventures, RRE Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, The Pritzker Group and CardWorks.
A year ago, the company raised a seed round of $14.75 million. The startup aims to change the way financial information is shared for credit scoring, cutting out the middlemen like Equifax.
The initial solutions are fraud, credit and identity products. Using the Spring Protocol, it’s possible to onboard customers by exchanging ID verification information without revealing personally identifiable information using attestations. Other identity platforms, such as Sovrin and uPort, also use attestations.
Four months ago, the startup said it was collaborating with General Motors Financial as a Spring Founding Industry Partner along with 20 other financial services companies to co-develop the first products. Now GM Ventures is also an investor.
“GM financial is excited to deepen its relationship with Spring Labs, and we look forward to the launch of the Spring products as we believe they have the potential to better protect our customers from fraudulent activity,” said Mike Kanarios, Chief Strategy Officer at GM Financial.
The car company aims to address fraud, which costs the industry $4-6 billion a year.
Spring Labs also aims to provide credit information for people who might otherwise lack a credit profile. It plans to do so by leveraging data from telecoms companies, other utilities, streaming services and insurers.
