Coin Metrics, the leading provider of Cryptoasset Data and Infrastructure for institutional investors, announced today that it completed a $6 million round of funding.
The funding round was led by Highland Capital Partners with participation from FMR, LLC, Castle Island Ventures, Communitas Capital, Collaborative Fund, Avon Ventures, Raptor Group, Coinbase Ventures, and Digital Currency Group. The capital will be used to continue to strengthen and grow Coin Metrics’ team, expand our product offering and provide enhanced coverage of digital assets.
Coin Metrics is setting the standard for institutions by providing the most comprehensive and informative suite of cryptoasset data products to enable institutional investors to make informed investment decisions. “Our ability to distill operational and economic activity occurring on a blockchain network, by running full nodes and performing deep analytics, is imperative for broader institutional investment in this space. Recent cryptoasset volatility and the insights we have been able to provide customers highlights the importance of the work we are doing,” commented Tim Rice, CEO of Coin Metrics.
Coin Metrics was created in 2017 by Nic Carter and Aleksei Nokhrin as an open source blockchain network data and analytics project. It has become a major industry resource for understanding network data – all the operational and economic activity occurring on a public blockchain that can be observed by running a full node. In November 2018, Tim Rice joined as co-founding CEO to drive the commercialization of Coin Metrics. Rice brings over 30 years of experience in traditional capital markets data. He has held executive positions at Tradeweb, Moneyline Telerate, Thomson Reuters and Markit (now IHS Markit) where he built out large scale, institutional-grade pricing and reference data businesses.
In year one as a commercial entity, Coin Metrics secured enterprise contracts with tier one traditional asset managers, bulge bracket global investment banks, traditional hedge funds, crypto hedge funds, crypto native asset managers and crypto exchanges. Coin Metrics is the go-to provider for cryptoasset network and market data. The company has emerged as the trusted brand for building institutional grade cryptoasset infrastructure and providing valuation frameworks for investors. “The foundation we’ve laid to become a provider to traditional capital markets is a key advantage for Coin Metrics, as assets like Bitcoin continue to draw interest and investment from these institutions”, said Rice. “These firms have strict due diligence processes before onboarding a data provider, and I am happy to say we have been able meet their requirements. This is a major hurdle for any vendor, much less a start-up, and is key to our continued success.”
The raise comes on the heels of adding top financial services talent to bolster Coin Metrics in the years to come. Recent additions to the management team are Kerry Yndestad (CIO) and Katie Chase (COO). Kerry was the Head of Rights Management Technology at Refinitiv and has over 30 years of experience as a technology leader in traditional capital markets data. This includes working in both startup and enterprise organizations. Rice and Yndestad worked together at Thomson Reuters, where they built out the Datascope pricing and reference data platform that grew from $90 million in ARR to $300 million in ARR over a five-year period. Kerry brings deep technical expertise and experience working with enterprise clients. Katie was the Head of Strategy in Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology (FCAT). She brings over 20 years of experience and has held many senior roles, including SVP of Corporate Planning and Strategy at Fidelity. For the past five years, Katie has been actively involved in defining and building Fidelity’s strategies relating to crypto and other emerging technology plays. In addition to her strategy role in FCAT, she also led the Blockchain Incubator for the past two years.
“Financial institutions require clean and transparent data to make decisions. These same requirements exist for Bitcoin and other cryptoassets that have emerged over the last decade. It’s become clear that Coin Metrics is the premier destination for network and market data.” said Sean Judge, Principal at Highland Capital Partners.
In addition to Sean Judge, Bob Davis, General Partner at Highland Capital Partners, has joined Coin Metrics’ Board of Directors.
About Coin Metrics:
Coin Metrics (www.coinmetrics.io) is a leading venture-backed provider of transparent and actionable cryptoasset market and network data. Coin Metrics delivers mature data across multiple formats to various industry stakeholders, including financial enterprises, funds, media and research outlets, and data/application providers. Coin Metrics’ data empowers its clients and the public to better understand, value, use, and ultimately steward public crypto networks.
About Highland Capital Partners:
Founded in 1988, Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm focused on putting the entrepreneur first. With offices in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Boston and New York, Highland has raised over $3.5 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 271 companies, resulting in category-defining businesses across consumer and enterprise technology. Investments include Gigamon, Carbon Black, Malwarebytes, Harry’s, Rent the Runway, and many, many others. For more information, visit www.hcp.com.
