Standard Chartered Participates in Jammed $18M Round for Crypto Custodian

British bank Standard Chartered has invested in Metaco, a crypto custodian focused on the institutional market.

• The Series A round was oversubscribed twice due to high demand; the 17 million Swiss franc ($18 million) raised will primarily go toward expansion to the U.S., Western Europe, and Southeast Asia, according to a press release.
• Metaco's main product is SILO, which provides financial institutions with a cold storage and exchange service, as well as the ability to tokenize assets.
• Alex Manson, Standard Chartered's head of ventures, said the company had invested in Metaco to improve the undeveloped market infrastructure surrounding digital assets.
• Standard Chartered's revenue was $15.42 billion in 2019; it's unclear how much it invested into Metaco's round.
• The round was led by Giesecke+Devrient, a Leipzig-based specialized printer in currency notes as well as, more recently, a manufacturer in smart cards.
• Other participants included Zürcher Kantonalbank, the fourth largest bank in Switzerland, and Swiss Post, the country's postal service, which invested in a previous round in 2018.
• Olivier Laplace, director at Swiss Post Ventures and member of Metaco's board, said the company's clientele had grown considerably over the past three years.

See also: Swiss Tech Firm Metaco Taps Blockchain Think Tank to Bolster Services