Former UBS blockchain lead Alex Batlin has raised $8 million in seed funding from Two Sigma Ventures and ConsenSys for his new startup developing technology and services to help private and institutional clients secure digital assets.
Batlin, who also led blockchain innovation work at BNY Mellon and was a founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and R3, has put together a team of former banking and technology execs for Trustology.
The company, which was incubated at ConsenSys and is now onboarding beta clients, is hoping to cash in on the growing institutional interest in digital assets, promising to help protect them.
Its first product, TrustVault, combines private key protection against cyber and physical threats with low latency execution by safekeeping private keys and control code inside tamper proof, programmable hardware security modules hosted in secure data centres, with encrypted backups in the cloud.
The seed funding will be used to develop new capabilities like smart accounts with programmable controls, support additional asset classes and expand operations internationally.
Says Batlin: "Trustology's unique blend of people, process, and key management technology offers industry defining digital asset security with speed of access and unrivalled ease of use."
Joseph Lubin, founder, ConsenSys and co-founder of Ethereum, adds: "Trustology represents a profound technological piece that will move the needle noticeably on institutional adoption of digital assets. And the world class Trustology team has the pedigree to drive these discussions."