The Libra Association announced that Temasek, Paradigm, and Slow Ventures joined as members. The Association governs the digital currency and payments network of Libra, the blockchain platform founded by Facebook.
While Libra previously lost heavyweight members such as Visa, Mastercard, eBay, and Paypal, with the addition of the three new entities, the Association now has 27 members.
Temasek is Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund with more than $230 billion in assets as of March 2019. It’s been active in the blockchain and digital payments space. A few months ago, Temasek, along with JPMorgan and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), completed a blockchain trial for multi-currency payments.
The company is also working with HSBC Singapore and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on a blockchain project to service fixed income securities. Meanwhile, Temasek’s investment arm Heliconia Capital has a stake in iSTOX, the blockchain capital markets platform.
In March, Antony Lewis joined Temasek as Associate Director for blockchain venture building. He was previously Director of Research at R3 and advised on money issued as tokens before venturing into digital assets. Temasek is also an R3 investor.
One interesting angle. The Chinese government finds Libra concerning and it has accelerated its own roll out of central bank digital currency. Singapore and China are important trading partners and China represents more than a quarter of Temasek’s investments.
The other two members, Paradigm and Slow Ventures, are investment firms that Libra believes would fuel the development of the blockchain and digital assets market. Slow Ventures is a backer of tech solutions Slack, Postmates, and Airtable.
“The addition of three new members to the Libra Association, shows our commitment to building a diverse group of organizations that will contribute to the governance, technological roadmap and launch readiness for the Libra payment system,” said Dante Disparte, Vice Chairman and head of policy and communications for the Libra Association.
Last month Libra announced significant changes to its plans and released another whitepaper in a bid to woo regulators. And earlier this month, the Libra Association appointed Stuart Levey as the CEO. Levey has a strong compliance record and worked as Chief Legal Officer at HSBC Holdings.
Meanwhile, some other new members who have joined Libra Association over the past year include Heifer International, Checkout.com, Shopify, and Tagomi.
