OB1, the company behind the decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar, has announced that it has raised $4.2 million till date, following a recent strategic investment of $200,000 from Digital Currency Group (DCG).
The recent funding follows a $3 million round of funding in December 2016 from BlueYard, Union Square Ventures, and Andreessen-Horowitz. Earlier, Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz also participated in a $1 million round along with William Mougayar, CoinDesk reported.
Built on the bitcoin blockchain, OpenBazaar enables both buyers and sellers to transact using bitcoin. People anywhere in the world are able to buy and sell goods with no commissions, while maintaining a degree of privacy greater than any e-commerce platform available today.
“The future of commerce is evolving to empower buyers and sellers,” says DCG CEO Barry Silbert, “and we are eager to work with OB1 to leverage the power of digital currencies to create new marketplaces and new models for global, inclusive commerce.”
Since April 2016, people from more than 120 countries have set up stores on OpenBazaar and the software has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, according to the official release.
“OpenBazaar has seen steady growth since its launch just over a year ago.” Says Brian Hoffman, CEO of OB1. “The network represents important strides forward in peer-to-peer and blockchain technology and we are honored to have the kind of investment partners who also share our vision for bringing it to life. We are excited to continue to grow with them and share this marketplace with more users who will benefit from it.”
OB1 said that it is currently involved in maintaining the current version of OpenBazaar as well as a major 2.0 version release and other applications due later this year. In September, it will be producing a brand new event called “Crypto Is Currency Day” to highlight use cases for digital currencies worldwide and encourage users to build network value by spending some of their coins.
