Funding

The Ethereum Foundation has awarded a grant to researchers at American Ivy League universities Columbia and Yale for the creation of a new smart programming language for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This news comes via a press release distributed earlier today. The grant will go directly to a smart contract R&D (research and development) project called DeepSea, lead by …

Figure, a blockchain-powered home equity loan company, has raised $65 million from a variety of venture capital and financial companies. This news comes via a TechCrunch report published earlier today. Thirteen-month-old Figure has raised about a staggering $120 million. RPM Ventures and DST Global appear to have led this round, with DCG, Nimble Ventures, and Morgan Creek participating. Ribbit Capital …

American shipping giant UPS has invested in blockchain logistics company Inxeption, according to a company press release published yesterday. The investment, made through UPS’s Strategic Enterprise Fund, will be used to develop new e-commerce solutions for buyers and sellers in B2B transactions, with the two companies working together. The terms of the deal were not included in the release, and …

According to a VentureBeat report published today, Reykjavik-based identity verification company Authenteq has raised $5 million in funding, led by Draper Associates and Capital300. In a slightly unusual move, Autheneq decided to have two closings of its Series A round. The first close just took two weeks to complete. The second close has not occurred yet, as the company is …