Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs has raised US$60 million in a Series B funding round led by investment firm Tiger Global, the company announced on Tuesday.
Fast facts
- Also participating in the financing round were American Express’ Amex Ventures, Visa, B Capital Group, Citi Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Blockchain Capital, Jump Capital, Marshall Wace, Block (formerly Square, Inc.) and PayPal Ventures. Additionally, TRM Labs raised investment from individual investors including Emilie Choi, president and COO of Coinbase, and cloud-based data warehousing firm Snowflake’s chairman and CEO Frank Slootman and CFO Michael Scarpelli.
- TRM Labs provides a blockchain intelligence platform that combines cross-chain data with threat intelligence, advanced analytics, and intuitive visualizations to help organizations detect crypto frauds and financial crimes. TRM Labs’ platform is used by exchanges and crypto businesses including Circle, FTX US and MoonPay to detect suspicious activity and comply with anti-money laundering requirements. Government agencies use TRM Labs to investigate crypto-related scams, hacks and terrorist financing.
- Spinning out of Y Combinator in 2019, San Francisco-based TRM Labs claims to have grown its revenue by 600% year-over-year while its team has grown from four to 60 members. The firm’s team includes financial threat experts from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service and Europol, as well as data scientists from Apple, Amazon and Google, a press release said.
- “Crypto is moving faster than any sector in our lifetimes. Organizations need a blockchain intelligence partner that can stay ahead of the evolving risk landscape, from ransomware attacks to DeFi exploits,” said Esteban Castaño, co-founder and CEO of TRM Labs. “This round enables TRM to continue to offer the most reliable data and most innovative technology solutions in the market to its customers.” Kim Trautmann, head of DRW Venture Capital, said there is a significant demand for what TRM Labs offers: “a transaction monitoring system that works seamlessly with this asset class [cryptocurrency].”
- TRM Labs’ funding comes less than two months after blockchain analytics firm Elliptic raised US$60 million from the likes of SoftBank, Wells Fargo and others. The big funding of these firms hardly come as a surprise as crypto frauds and scams have skyrocketed since last year. According to Elliptic data, decentralized finance exploits have caused a total loss of US$12 billion in 2021, as of November. That’s a massive leap from the total loss of US$1.9 billion through crypto scams in 2019.