Samsung and Salesforce invest in cryptocurrency company

Samsung Venture Investment Corp has led Digital Asset’s second funding round, to help boost smart contract adoption.

2 min read

Feb 5, 2020

Two major venture capitals—Samsung Venture Investment Corp (SVIC) and Salesforce Ventures (SV)—have backed Digital Asset, creator of the smart contract language DAML, in the second closing of its Series C funding round.

The two prominent VCs led the second round of financing, pledging an undisclosed amount of capital. SVIC—the investment arm of tech conglomerate, Samsung— typically invests in future centric business models, boasting a current $2.2 billion under management.

"We strongly believe that Digital Asset's model to embed DAML in partner platforms fundamentally changes the entire blockchain market," said an SVIC spokesperson.

Samsung's home in San Jose, California. Image: Shutterstock.

According to a Digital Asset press release, the funds will be used to "enhance the DAML developer experience" and further the adoption of the DAML smart contract language across a range of industries.

In its first funding round back in December, the blockchain startup managed to net $35 million. The initial Series C round observed investments from such finance monoliths as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan, as well as Jefferson River Capital and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Beyond another successful funding round, the firm highlights the addition of Susan Hauser—a 28-year Microsoft veteran and advisor to Digital Asset—to the company's board of directors.

"During my time as an advisor to Digital Asset, I quickly learned how transformative smart contracts could be for a variety of use cases and across industries. We are going to see adoption of smart contracts—and languages like DAML—take off in the near future," noted Hauser.

Digital Asset tasks itself with instilling the DAML smart contract technology into its partner's product offerings. Since being founded back in 2014, The firm has partnered with a variety of high-level businesses, including alliances with Hyperledger Sawtooth, Hyperledger Fabric, Corda, and Amazon's QLDB.

With a fresh bout of funding, Digital Asset's goal of generating critical mass for smart contract language may soon come to fruition.

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