$12 million has already been raised so far for a new startup that will invest in blockchain projects.
The new startup is called StarChain Capital and is being backed by two French investors.
One of the investors is Cyril Paglino who was behind the failed messaging app Tribe a few years ago. He says what he learned from Tribe’s failure is being carried into the new venture. The other investor is Andrea Riom, who is based in Paris.
“We are aware that we are not really ready for the customer aspect of this space,” Paglino said. “That might be 10 or 12 years away. So we are looking for people creating that first layer of tech.”
Going to the Moon
Paglino has said that blockchain was initially just a hobby for him. He had purchased some cryptocurrency as a side investment and learned about blockchain out of curiosity. Being in Silicon Valley, however, allowed him to get fully immersed in blockchain technology to the point that he sought to pursue it as a business.
While StarChain has already raised an impressive $12 million so far, their ultimate goal is $20 million over the next year.
Paglino isn’t new to investing, however, as he has engaged in investments so far with Sequoia Capital, A16Z, Polychain Capital, and Bain Capital.
So far, StarChain has made it sown investments in Orchid Lab, FOAM Protocol, Basis, and Polkadot.
No Longer a Hobby
Paglino had dabbled in blockchain technology for years but only just begun investing in blockchain recently full time, a decision that was driven by the failure of his previous venture, video messaging app called tribe.
Tribe was founded in 2015 and had raised over $6.5 million in capital before it shut down in 2017.
Paglino moved to San Francisco when Tribe first got hype and by 2016, had raised over $3 million. While it was updated with new features including mix video, it failed to quite capture the audience it was looking for.
It then tried to re-vamp itself as a video game chat platform but was rejected by the Apple app store which claimed that it allowed users to buy video games.
Apple refused to reverse its decision and tribe realized that it could not compete with established apps like Instagram and Snapchat and so it closed down in 2017.
