OB1, the Washington, D.C.–based company building decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar, raised $5m in series A funding.
The round was led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from Bitmain, Digital Currency Group, BlueYard Capital, Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to lead development of OpenBazaar and expand the adoption of the marketplace.
Led by OB1 CEO Brian Hoffman, OpenBazaar is a decentralized e-commerce marketplace that connects people directly to each other via a peer-to-peer network rather than through a centralized site as with Amazon or eBay, offering secure, commission-free trade for both buyers and sellers.
Since the launch of the updated 2.0 platform near the end of 2017, over 40,000 nodes globally have joined the OpenBazaar network. In early 2018, OpenBazaar enhanced its value to buyers and sellers by enabling purchases with Bitcoin Cash and Zcash.
OB1 plans to release web and mobile versions of the application as well as giving users new ways to trade with each other, such as making requests and buying and selling cryptocurrencies. The company is also expanding the services it offers to users on OpenBazaar, such as the Verified Moderators program, released this week.
FinSMEs
14/03/2018