Samsung-backed startup partner AERGO, announces it has secured $30M from top investors including Sequoia Capital China and GBIC, to develop its end-to-end open-source platform for distributed services
Hong Kong – November 2018 — AERGO, the strategic technology partner of Samsung Ventures funded startup Blocko, announces it has secured $30 million in a venture funding round to allow businesses to share data through trustless blockchain networks. Blocko supports, develops, and subsequently plans to use the AERGO platform to offer a broader set of enterprise-IT solutions and cloud-based application development capabilities to many existing blockchain clients.
AERGO is an end-to-end open-source based platform that features customizable high-scale hybrid-blockchain deployments, a serverless cloud architecture, and data bridging technology. The company was founded by Blocko’s leadership team consisting of enterprise-IT and blockchain veterans. AERGO’s architecture will allow enterprises to transfer data without having to trust an intermediary while also being flexibly governed and integrated seamlessly into existing systems.
AERGO will use the funds to develop the AERGO platform. This includes:
- Releasing a new base-layer public blockchain protocol
- Delivering a set of easy-to-use IT integration software deployment blueprints
- Scaling-out its research and development teams
- Launching new applications on the platform to demonstrate use cases
- Expanding its partner ecosystem and global reach
The AERGO organization has raised $30 million in funds to build a public blockchain platform that incorporates insights Blocko has gained from delivering 23 private blockchain products to enterprises, fintech companies, and government bodies since 2014.
The funding round included Sequoia Capital China, GBIC, Neo Global Capital, Dekrypt Capital, FBG Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, JRR Crypto, Rockaway Capital, Block Crafters Capital, and more.
“I’ve spent over twenty-five years leading firms like Red Hat and VMWare in driving adoption of open-source technologies by delivering complex systems to corporations like Deutsche Telekom, HSBC, Ferrari, Sony, Ericsson, and Siemens,” said Phil Zamani, Founder and Chairman of the AERGO organization. “Blocko’s approach to the next frontier of open-source technology, blockchain, will emulate that which I made when leading business strategies in firms like Red Hat, where innate customer know-how, which Blocko has, was the edge over competitors like IBM.”
Mr. Zamani believes the success of the funding round is credited to the open-source enterprise-IT leadership experience he holds and the four years of practical blockchain implementation experience Blocko holds having delivered many in-production systems to clients including Korea Exchange, Samsung Card, Lotte Card, a South Korean government body (and more). Blocko’s services became increasingly demanded by large companies after Samsung first made an investment in the company in 2016.
AERGO takes a hybrid blockchain approach to its design architecture which entails a mix of a public chain, private chains, and side chains all connected through interoperability technology. AERGO claims a hybrid approach should allow ease of integration into existing systems by giving businesses the flexibility of coupling completely trustless environments for sensitive data or value transfers with regulatory compliant record-keeping, privacy, and customization.
“Many of the newer blockchain solutions are still not suited for enterprises and existing businesses. AERGO has the greatest potential to bring blockchain technology closer to the real world as it is leveraging Blocko’s core technology which has dozens of production-level projects with millions of end-users,” said Sinhae Lee, Partner at GBIC, in a statement. “The team has been focusing on blockchain technology since 2014 and has been providing its blockchain product, Coinstack, to some of the largest conglomerates including Samsung Card, Hyundai, and Kia Motors.”
Roger Lim, Partner at Neo Global Capital, the investment arm of China’s blockchain platform NEO, added, “There are three things needed for a platform to be successful: great technology, a strong team, and a proven track record to deliver on a disruptive vision. The team’s extensive experience in delivering blockchain implementations stands out and fulfills these requirements. We look forward to working with AERGO to help them to deliver a platform for decentralized applications running on the blockchain.”
The startup previously raised USD 8.9 M in a Series-B round in June of this year which included a follow-on investment from Samsung Ventures from a previous funding round.
Leadership:
Won Beom-Kim – Founder and Chief Scientist
Phil Zamani – Chairman & CEO
Hunyoung Park – CTO & Board Member
About AERGO:
AERGO is an open platform that allows businesses to build innovative applications and services by sharing data on a trustless and distributed IT ecosystem. AERGO is supported and developed by Blocko, Korea’s largest blockchain infrastructure provider.
About GBIC:
GBIC (Global Blockchain Innovative Capital) is a multi-strategy crypto fund with offices in New York, Shanghai, and Seoul. GBIC is a global fund that furthers the development, acceleration, and launch of blockchain projects.
