A fintech subsidiary investment arm of Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) named Digital Ventures, revealed this week it participated in a US$55 million Series B fund, raised by San Francisco-based company Ripple, and looks to invest in a blockchain feasibility study. Series B financing is the second round of financing for a business through any type of investment including private equity investors and venture capitalists. Successive rounds of financing or funding a business are consecutively termed Series A,Series B and Series C financing.
This is the first time ever that a Thai banks is investing to test enterprise-grade blockchain technology. The goal set by Digital Ventures is to create an international transaction system that is fast, cost-saving, private and secure.
“Blockchain is an exciting, emerging financial technology that is slated to transform the world of financial services and online transactions,” said Thana Thienachariya, the Chairman of the Executive Committee at Digital Ventures in an official statement. “Through an investment in and pilot program with Ripple, SCB can explore the opportunity in utilizing blockchain to develop new products and services to better serve customers. “When the blockchain network is commercially viable and gets approval from Thai financial regulatory authority in the future, the knowledge base gained from this investment can be integrated to our system, and will bring a significant improvement in the quality of SCB’s international money transfer services through fast, convenient, cost-saving and secure world-class online transaction platform,” said Thienachariya.
Source: e27.co
