Elwood secures investments from Goldman Sachs and Barclays

American multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs and British bank Barclays have invested in crypto trading platform Elwood Technologies. Elwood Technologies unveiled this news earlier today through a press release. The banks joined other renowned investors to raise $70 million in the company’s Series A funding round.

According to the press release, Goldman Sachs co-led the funding round alongside Dawn Capital. The list of investors in the funding round featured both traditional financial institutions and digital asset companies. These include BlockFi Ventures, Chimera Ventures, Flow Traders, CommerzVentures, Digital Currency Group, and Galaxy Digital Ventures.

Reportedly, Elwood’s valuation rose past $500 million post-funding. The company aims to deploy the funds to address the needs of its rapidly expanding list of institutional clients. Specifically, Elwood aims to expand its product offering and ramp up its global expansion plans.

Institutional investors have a heightened appetite for crypto

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Despite the recent crypto market crash, Elwood said the collaboration between crypto-native funds and legacy financial institutions shows the gap between the two industries is narrowing. Additionally, the company said this funding round shows institutional investors are increasingly getting interested in the crypto ecosystem.

Moreover, Elwood Technologies CEO James Stickland commented,

We’re getting investment from financial institutions that aren’t expecting to get massive returns in 15 minutes. They’re investing in the infrastructure, I think it’s a reassurance message.

Josh Bell, General Partner at Dawn Capital, said the firm seeks to underpin first-class infrastructure that supports the rapid evolution of the crypto market. He added that investing in Elwood was a natural fit because the company features cutting-edge technology, an experienced team, and significant market opportunity.

Goldman Sachs continues warming up to crypto

Commenting on this investment, Goldman Sachs’ Global Head of Digital Assets, Mathew McDermott,

As institutional demand for cryptocurrency rises, we have been actively broadening our market presence and capabilities to cater for client demand. Our investment in Elwood demonstrates our continued commitment to digital assets and we look forward to partnering to expand our capabilities.

Indeed, the bank has been ramping up efforts to bring crypto closer to Wall Street investors. Before investing in Elwood, the investment bank issued its first Bitcoin (BTC)-backed loan earlier this month. The borrower, in this case, was crypto exchange Coinbase.

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At the time, the head of Coinbase Institutional, Brett Tejpaul, said,

Coinbase’s work with Goldman is a first step in the recognition of crypto as collateral which deepens the bridge between the fiat and crypto economies.