Tag: Fundraise

Thoma Bravo Contributes $70m for Blockchain Intelligence Firm TRM Labs

by Blockchain News

Thoma Bravo, one of the largest private equity firms that manage more than $122 billion in assets, has contributed $70 million in funding to Blockchain-based intelligence company TRM Labs’s series B funding round, totalling the amount raised to $130 million.

Other participants in this round of fundraising included Goldman Sachs, Paypal Ventures, Amex Ventures, and Citi Ventures. The round follows TRM’s $60 Million Series B raise in December 2021 led by Tiger Global. 

TRM Labs products focus mainly on allowing the trace of cryptocurrency transactions, risk assessment of other crypto businesses, and transaction monitoring for anti-money laundering compliance. 

The blockchain firm claims its products are used by law enforcement agencies, tax authorities,  regulatory bodies, and financial intelligence units worldwide to investigate and analyze crypto-related fraud and financial crimes. 

According to the company, the funds raised would be used to develop more strategic investments in product development, create accessible tools to counter illicit finance and fraud in the crypto space, and meet the demand for its incident response services and training programs.

Esteban Castaño, co-founder and CEO of TRM, noted:

“Demand has never been stronger for solutions that help protect crypto users, impede illicit actors, and support blockchain-based innovation. As the industry continues to mature, TRM is setting the standard for data, products, and training that equip enterprises and governments to combat fraud and financial crime, even as new threats emerge.”

Since the initial Series B round in December last year, TRM Labs has acquired CSITech, a UK-based investigations and training firm, launched Chainsbuse, a free community-powered scam reporting platform, as well as integrated with reputable blockchains such as Solana, Polygon, and Avalanche to continue providing more insights of blockchain-based activity.

Notably, TRM Labs was established in 2018, and ever since, the company claims to have registered year-over-year revenue growth of 490%. Its members include former law enforcement officers from the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, INTERPOL, Australian Federal Police, the United States Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, among others.

Speaking of TRM Labs, the blockchain firm recently appointed Sujit Raman, a former Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the chairman of the task force that authored the 2020 DOJ Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework, as its General Counsel.

As reported by Blockchain.News Raman’s responsibility includes managing the company’s legal affairs, supporting global compliance and coordinating investigations and law enforcement activities.

Image source: Shutterstock

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AssangeDAO concludes raise with $53M to help Julian fight for freedom

by Cointelegraph

The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) supporting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s legal plight has concluded its raise, generating a whooping 17,422 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $53.7 million.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the AssangeDAO intends to use the fund to bid on a one-of-one NFT from a drop called “Censored” by digital artist Pak in collaboration with Assange. The proceeds of the sale will go towards Assange’s defense fund and additional awareness campaigns as he fights extradition to the U.S. this month.

Assange has been languishing in a U.K. jail for the past three years, with U.S. prosecutors seeking to try him on espionage charges. Supporters say that Assange is a whistleblower, journalist and publisher.

At the time of writing, Pak and Assange’s “One Thousand Thirty Four” one-of-one NFT has a current top bid of 4,242.42 Ether ($13 million) with the auction set to close later today. The NFT collection was launched on Feb. 7, which was also the deadline for Assange’s lawyers to plead their case against his extradition.

The Assange DAO’s $53.7 million figure marks the largest ever raise from a DAO using the community funding hosting platform Juicebox, ousting the widely popular ConstitutionDAO which raised $49 million from the community in late 2021 to bid on a copy of the 1st edition print copy of the United States Constitution.

More than 10,000 people backed the fundraiser, showing strong support for Assange and the values around transparency that he and Wikileaks stands for.

Pak spoke to Artnet earlier this week, and outlined that Assange’s cause was precisely what they were looking for as the message behind their latest drop:

“I am in love with creating different mechanisms to communicate my messages. For ‘Censored,’ the drop needed a good reason to exist and Julian was just the perfect fit.”

“The biggest message is censored as usual,” they added.

Related: Wonderland’s treasury saga exposes the fragility of DAO projects today

The Censored drop also includes an open edition with unlimited mints within a specific time frame, and Pak stated that the proceeds will be donated to “information freedom, digital privacy, education, health, and human and animal rights” organizations.

“In other words, everything that is censored eventually returns to the people,” they said.