Nick Szabo looking to raise $3 million for bitcoin startup

Cryptographer Nick Szabo, an early pioneer of bitcoin and the father of “smart contracts,” is raising funds to support a bitcoin startup, reported Quartz.

The news outlet, which spoke to sources and reviewed a pitch deck, said Szabo is in talks to raise $3 million.

An individual familiar with the matter told Quartz that $1 million has already been committed by China-based Fenbushi Capital, which specializes in blockchain investments (the company recently made investments in Fluent and Tierion). Over the past few months, the seed round has targeted VC firms focused on bitcoin and blockchain.

Quartz reported that Donald McIntyre, an entrepreneur who’s worked at Morgan Stanley and UBS as an executive, will join Szabo at the startup. The publication cites McIntyre’s LinkedIn profile, which says he’s co-founder and COO of Global Financial Access, Inc. “Our purpose is to help people everywhere access assets issued anywhere in the world,” the profile says about the company.

According to the pitch deck, the company will use smart contracts on the blockchain to produce financial products that mimic traditional assets like commodities and bonds. The company could make blockchain-oriented products that mimic the price of underlying assets such as gold and Treasury bonds. The deck says the company is looking to have approximately $20 billion in assets under management by 2021.

Quartz said the company seems to be catering to individuals from emerging markets interested in purchasing financial products using bitcoin. The pitch deck cites data on outflows from emerging markets and an “opportunity to focus initially on Latin American markets to satisfy need for stable investable assets.”

Image credit – Public domain image by Satoshi