For a while, cryptocurrency was largely the domain of a few techno-savvy people. However, as blockchain and other related technologies grow around it, cryptocurrency has been adopted by mainstream culture.
But with mainstream adoption, comes proliferation. There are now more than 3,000 types of cryptocurrencies, according to Capital.com, each with its own code and key needed to track it across the internet. So while some cryptocurrencies have seen a rise in use and value, it can still be difficult for users to manage all of their accounts. And it has been traditionally even more complicated for financial institutions to connect to customers’ wallets.
Since the advent of the Ethereum cryptocurrency platform, local entrepreneurs Christopher Brown and Alex Treece, had been watching the crypto markets proliferate. They launched their first product last year with their Dallas-based fintech startup Zabo, which landed a Seed round of funding last week.
“We had this shared vision that this space was going to grow a lot... but there was a lot of missing pieces,” Treece said. “If you look across other markets in tech… you have these middle-ware infrastructure pieces… that make building things in those ecosystems a lot easier. In crypto, it was still the bare metal. The right way to think about crypto is as an alternative financial system... it’s another option, a totally different alternative.”
Zabo, which has developed an API to connect financial services companies to their customers’ cryptocurrency wallets, began its journey in 2017, with Brown’s Ethereum blockchain security startup Modular. After teaming up with Treece, the company grew into what would become Zabo, which was launched a year later.
In 2018, Zabo landed a $1 million Pre-Seed round from Blockchain Ventures. Now, with its product launch and a desire to add more services and customers, Zabo has closed on a $2.5 million Seed round led by Moonshots Capital - one of the fist blockchain-related investments for the firm. The round was joined by Blockchange Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Digital Currency Group, CoinShares, Tezos Foundation and Capital Factory, among others.
“It’s about giving people options between these alternatives,” Treece said. “I think the way it’s really going to onboard to the next users… is as an investment asset. [We’re] looking to be on the vanguard.”
"[We’re] looking to be on the vanguard.”
Zabo operates as a B2B company, selling its technology to financial services, to allow their customers to manage their cryptocurrency investments like other traditional assets. According to the company, with a few lines of code, Zabo can create a standardized interface for a large number of cryptocurrencies. Treece said the ability is becoming more expected by crypto users, as it becomes more widely used.
With the new funding, the company is looking to add to its 4-person team, hiring software and DevOps engineers. In addition, Zabo is looking to expand its API to include every crypto asset, account and wallet, as well as increase support for customers.
Treece said that while Zabo has been growing in both size and offering, raising a large funding round in the cryptocurrency industry was fairly difficult in the DFW region. However, since crypto is “fundamentally a global product,” the company has been able to gain traction with users.
“Every financial service company is offering new financial service products... and crypto is becoming part of that complex,” Treece said. “We’re really at the intersection of blockchain, crypto and fintech. We’re wanting to be the one-stop shop for crypto users.”
