Blockchain network builder ConsenSys has invested $6.5 million in DrumG Technologies, a startup co-founded by the former CEO of R3 Lab and research centre Tim Grant to create business product overlays on exiting distributed ledger applications.
DrumG Technologies employs 20 staff with decades of experience in institutional financial services and technology firms such as UBS Investment Bank, Barclays, JPMorgan, Bloomberg, IBM, PwC, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, UBS O'Connor, Millennium Management, Getco and Pivotal.
The company is geared towards easing the interoperability bottlenecks between enterprise blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and R3 and business networks. It is currently working with Credit Suisse on a product dubbed the Titanium Network, designed to optimise OTC data sharing over the Enterprise Ethereum platform, and on the creation of a post-trade reconciliation network for hedge funds, prime brokers, fund administrators and auditors built on R3.
"We have seen tremendous evolution of enterprise blockchain platforms in this space over the last three years and the level of sophistication and preparedness within the financial services community has also increased," says Grant."However, there is still work to do to get to functioning systems in production. We believe in delivering solutions that generate true business value on a timeline measured in months rather than years, which requires a radically pragmatic focus on deployment, a deep understanding of financial markets from both a business and technology perspective, and hands-on experience of the strengths and limitations of different enterprise platforms."
ConsenSys is the sole investor in the funding round and its founder and CEO Joseph Lubin will serve on the DrumG Technologies board.