Today, Emergence Capital
is thrilled to announce an investment in Xapo,
an early leader in the emerging bitcoin ecosystem. CEO Wences Casares has decades of experience
in building successful global finance companies. My partners and I have known
him for over fifteen years, and we can’t think of a better leader to navigate this
exciting new platform.
On a personal level, I have been tracking bitcoin startups
for nearly two years. When I first
canvased the ecosystem, I came across less than 100
startups, mostly focused on wallets, exchanges and merchant services. I’m now working on an updated version of this
landscape with nearly 1,000 companies, which I plan to publish in the next few
weeks.
The more time I spend with bitcoin entrepreneurs, the more
obsessed I become. It’s so much more than a financial instrument – it’s a
protocol that allows efficient and secure fixing, storing and transfer of
value. That value can be much more than a currency, we are thinking about use
cases in real estate, tickets, email addresses and more. While we have started
to see early companies focused on the consumer elements of bitcoin, at
Emergence, we are particularly excited about the emerging B2B opportunities around
security, identity, financial tracking, merchant services, analytics and others.
Just over 10 years ago we invested in Salesforce.com which
became the defining company in the SaaS world. Today, we are announcing our
first investment in a bitcoin company, and we are excited to partner with Wences
and the company that’s going to help define one of the most exciting developments
for the next decade.
