Lightyear becomes Interstellar following acquisition of blockchain startup Chain

Lightyear Corporation, a Stellar-focused company, has acquired Chain, a startup focused on building enterprise-grade blockchain products.

With this acquisition, both Chain and Lightyear brands will cease to exist and the combined company will be called “Interstellar”. The new company will focus on helping organizations build on the Stellar Network – an open network that allows any currency or asset to be digitally issued, transferred, and exchanged over the internet.

Importantly, Chain CEO Adam Ludwin will take on the role of CEO of Interstellar, while Jed McCaleb, who co-founded the Stellar Development Foundation and Lightyear, will be CTO of the combined entity. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), which develops the Stellar protocol and supports the open source community, will remain independent.

Lightyear, a for-profit entity focused on the adoption of the Stellar network by enterprise, was founded last year with support from SDF.

Founded in 2014, Chain builds blockchain products leveraged by leading financial organizations including Visa, Nasdaq, and Citigroup. It previously raised $44 million from Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures, Thrive Capital, and strategic partners including Visa, Nasdaq, Citi, Capital One, Fiserv, and Orange.

Chain will bring its enterprise customer base and products to the Stellar network, creating an end-to-end solution that will enable organizations to issue, exchange, and manage assets on a highly-scalable public network.

"Chain's team has led the market for enterprise adoption of blockchain technology, which is a critical component of building a future where money and digital assets move over open protocols," said Jed McCaleb. "We are thrilled to be joining forces to help organizations build on Stellar."

Interstellar's product portfolio will include Chain’s cloud product, Sequence, which will enable enterprises to issue, manage, and track assets as they move between private ledgers and the Stellar network. It will also include StellarX, a recently announced marketplace for trading assets on Stellar. StellarX is currently in beta and will be launching to the public soon.

"Chain has admired Stellar for years, and from day one we've shared their goal of enabling financial assets to move seamlessly over the internet," said Adam Ludwin. "Chain has worked from inside the enterprise while Stellar has focused on the network between organizations. As a single team, we will have a complete view and set of capabilities to make value-over-IP a reality."

At close, Interstellar will employ 60 people with its headquarters in San Francisco and offices in New York City and Singapore.