Ripple Labs raises $28 million in Series A funding round

Ripple Labs, an international leader in distributed payments technology and supporters of the Ripple protocol, announced Tuesday it has closed a $28-million Series A funding round that included IDG Capital Partners and the venture arms of CME Group and global data storage company Seagate Technology. Other new investors include Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, China Growth Capital, and Wicklow Capital, the investment vehicle for Stephen Schuler and Dan Tierney, co-founders of GETCO (now KCG).

The fundraising round will help Ripple continue to expand its presence worldwide, particularly in Asia.

The company said in a press release that the mix of traditional venture funds and strategic investors supports the vision for Ripple to enable an Internet of Value by powering the real-time, secure settlement of funds for banks and multinational firms around the world. Ripple said the investors reflect the company’s focus on banking as well as market making and new corporate treasury use case worldwide.

“Our mission is to modernize decades-old payments infrastructure with IP-based technology so value moves around the world as freely, easily, securely and transparently as information on the web today,” said Ripple Labs CEO and co-founder Chris Larsen in the press release. “Financial institutions, market makers and corporations are laying the foundation for this Internet of Value, contributing and providing liquidity for global payments. With investors like CME Group and Seagate joining the fold, we’re well positioned to accelerate adoption amongst these key customers.”

Image via the press release