Harbor, a startup reengineering private securities with blockchain technology, has raised $28 million in new funding round led by Founders Fund, bringing the total funding to $40 million till date.

The round also saw the participation of new investors Andreessen Horowitz and Pantera Capital, as well as existing investors Craft Ventures, Vy Capital and Valor Equity Partners. Other new investors in the round included Future Perfect Ventures, 1confirmation, Abstract Ventures, and Signia Venture Partners. Individual investors in the round included Nicolas Berggruen of Berggruen Holdings, Napoleon Ta of Founders Fund, and Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital.

Founded in 2017, Harbor is compliance platform for tokenizing private securities such as real estate, company equity, investment funds, fine art, etc. Powered by its compliance protocol, the platform seeks to ensure tokenized securities comply with existing securities laws on every trade, everywhere across the globe.

"Tokenizing private securities allows issuers to lock up capital, without locking up investors," said Joshua Stein, CEO of Harbor. "The prospect of greatly increased liquidity for private securities will enhance capital formation, create new investment opportunities and support economic growth. Harbor is the enabling technology platform for securities issuers and broker-dealers to compliantly tokenize private securities."

In its official release, Harbor said that it will leverage its Regulated Token (R-Token) standard to deliver the first platform for issuers of securities and licensed broker-dealers to bring fully compliant tokenized securities to market, beginning this summer. The R-Token is a system of ERC-20 smart contracts built on the Ethereum blockchain and compatible with the ERC-20 ecosystem of exchanges, wallets, qualified custodians, and other services.

“The Regulated Token (R-Token) standard is Harbor's open source compliance framework and a core component of its compliance protocol. The R-Token checks every trade and only permits transactions to occur if they meet applicable rules for that specific offering…,” Harbor said. “Issuers, broker-dealers, underwriters, and/or regulatory bodies can implement the R-Token standard for specific exemptions and to meet jurisdictional securities regulations, know your customer (KYC) policies, anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, tax considerations, and more.”