BnL Growth Partners joins BB Fund to fuel investments in the CEE blockchain space

Banking on Blockchain Fund (BB Fund) was founded by financial technology consultant Chris Skinner and the Singapore-based venture capital firm Life.Sreda. The fund is raising USD 50m by the end of 2016, with an additional USD 50m to be raised in the first half of 2017. Life.Sreda, whose portfolio primarily focuses on fintech and payments, has committed USD 5m, and the Fund has an additional USD 20m in soft-commitments from financial institutions so far according to fund managers. The BB Fund is aiming to raise capital from mid-sized financial institutions, giving them access to the rapidly-growing blockchain ecosystem.

BB Fund is headquartered in London and the main investment focus will be on the European market. As lead partner, BnL will target the CEE region to find and manage start-ups for the BB Fund. As many of these start-ups are tackling similar issues, however, for a mid-sized bank it will be challenging to decide which ones are worthy of attention. BnL’s additional role will be to guide and advise financial institutions in the region on different business models, and to find relevant use cases and appropriate technical architectures.

BnL Growth Partners is a private equity and smartmoney advisory boutique firm committed to boost innovation in the fintech sphere by funding and advising companies on product and market growth.