Alibaba’s Ant Financial Back $10 Million Round for ZKP Blockchain Privacy Solutions Firm
- QEDIT was the company raising funds in a Series A round, led by Chinese business titans.
- QEDIT focuses on developing privacy solutions with zero knowledge proof (ZKP) technology.
QEDIT, an Israeli blockchain privacy solutions firm developing zero knowledge proof (ZKP) technology, has closed a $10 million Series A round which saw participation from investors such as Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, the Israeli daily business newspaper Calcalist reported this Tuesday.
The funding round was reportedly led by MizMaa Ventures, with participation from Ant Financial, RGAX, Meron Capital, Collider Ventures, Jovono and Target Global. Up to date QEDIT was able to gather a total of $14 million in funding, including this round, a previous $3 million seed round, and $1 million in grants.
The Series A round closing was announced alongside partnerships with Ant Financial, VMWare and RGAX. The companies will reportedly cooperate with QEDIT to review their privacy products, and also help implement the ZKP technology at corporate level. The vice president and general manager of Ant Financial’s tech and business innovation group, Geoff Jiang, said in a statement:
“Ant Financial shares a common vision with QEDIT to protect data privacy and security. Robust privacy measures are critical to the ongoing development of the wider finance sector. Together with QEDIT, Ant Financial is committed to providing such capabilities as part of our blockchain services.”
QEDIT was co-founded by Jonathan Rouach and Ruben Arnold, both of whom have previously founded crypto firms, back in 2016. The company focuses on developing privacy solutions for enterprise blockchains, that are compatible with data privacy laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union, and allows for blockchain-powered and privacy preserving data sharing. Their technology has been designed to be used in audits and due diligence services for financial institutions.
- The private MINA token sale was co-led by FTX Ventures and Three Arrows Capital, and saw participation from new and existing backers.
- Most of the raised capital will be used in grants, meant to attract “world-class” developers and accelerate the adoption of the network.
Shutterstock
- Business and local governments are working together to reduce the coronavirus epidemic with Alibaba playing the main role.
- Many employees are encouraged to work from home as there is a risk that the epidemic may spread again after March 17.
- With President Xi Jinping’s blessing, the Chinese government is involved in many blockchain projects part of the list.
- Some of the biggest Chinese technology and retail enterprises are competing to offer the most advanced blockchain cloud services.