Fineqia International Inc.is has participated in the US$21 million IDEO CoLab Ventures (“IDEO CoLab Ventures”) fund that invests in early stage blockchain and crypto start-ups. The investment in IDEO CoLab Ventures was made via its subsidiary, Fineqia Investments Ltd
Along with Fineqia, the fund is backed by global design company IDEO known for iconic designs such as Apple’s first computer mouse and for tackling complex challenges across business, social, and government sectors, Avanta Ventures (the venture capital arm of CSAA Insurance Group), Korea’s GS Group, and other institutional investors, as well as executives from IDEO, Coinbase, Twitter and Fortress, among those from other tech companies and financial institutions.
“Combining design and technology is the specialty of a select few but the pleasure of the very many,” said Fineqia’s CEO Bundeep Singh Rangar. “Our investment is to support this thesis and propagate it via IDEO CoLab Ventures.”
IDEO CoLab Ventures has invested in and helped incubate 30 blockchain and crypto start-ups such as Braintrust (https://www.usebraintrust.com, FalconX (https://falconx.io), Messari (https://messari.io) and NEAR (https://near.org), by bringing IDEO’s range of capabilities in the areas such as product design, customer research and collaborative corporate networks.
“Our deep capabilities in design, product development, and blockchain technology enable us to attract world-class entrepreneurs and start-ups from around the world,” said Ian Lee, Managing Director of IDEO CoLab Ventures. “This has led to unparalleled investment opportunities and the chance to collaborate with some of the world’s best founders and companies on the development of this important technology and the businesses that are being built with it.”
Fineqia’s investment follows others such as in blockchain insurance software company, Black Insurance; blockchain-based asset registration and clearing solution, Nivaura Ltd; blockchain-based asset manager Wave Financial Ltd; premium finance Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider, PremFina Limited; and Phunware Inc., an enterprise cloud platform for delivery of mobile content for brands worldwide.
