Coinbase, Ripple back security token startup Securitize’s $12.7M Series A round

Securitize, a compliance platform for the primary issuance and lifecycle management of digitized securities on the blockchain, has raised $12.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Blockchain Capital, CoinDesk reported.

Blockchain Capital co-founder and managing partner Brad Stephens is joining Securitize’s board of directors. The funding round also drew support from Coinbase Ventures, Ripple’s Xpring, OKEx’s OK Blockchain Capital, Global Brain and NXTP.

Securitize co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo told CoinDesk that the latest round will help bring on “knowledgeable investors” as the company prepares for a security token offering. The company also plans to “streamline its investor relations, build up liquidity and compliance efforts, and maintain capital formation.”

“…We plan to grow our engineering team and geographic coverage from Latin America to the Asia Pacific Region and other parts of the world for business development,” he added.

The securities industry is currently estimated around $7 trillion. Carlos said that he wants to transition this industry to decentralized ledgers which will help bring more transparency and facilitate instantaneous transactions. According to the platform’s whitepaper:

“Securitize’s mission is to be the leading platform for enabling compliant Digital Securities issuance and liquidity on the blockchain. To achieve this, Securitize has built a technology platform that provides the tools to issuers to manage all the elements in the full Digital Security lifecycle, including the smart contracts that actually support the token information on the Ethereum blockchain.”

Securitize has already started issuing digital securities for firms such as 22x, SPiCE VC and Augmate, as well as Blockchain Capital’s BCAP security token.