Bakkt records an additional $300 million Series B Financing

On Monday, 16 March 2020, Bakkt announced that they have raised an additional $300 million series B financing round. Bakkt is the digital assets subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE)

According to the announcement made by Bakkt CEO, Mike Blandina, investors that participated in this round include Intercontinental Exchange, Microsoft’s M12. As well as, PayU, Boston Consulting Group, Goldfinch Partners, CMT Digital, and Pantera Capital.

In the post, Blandina said, “With the completion of our Series B financing and the recent acquisition of Bridge2 Solutions. Bakkt is now a team of 350 employees and powers the loyalty redemption programs for 7 of the top 10 financial institutions and over 4,500 loyalty and incentive programs including two of the largest US airlines.”

Bakkt’s view on digital assets

Bakkt holds a wider view on ‘digital assets’ and believes that it should include diversities such as in-game assets, loyalty and reward points, merchant stored value and cryptocurrencies. They also hold the view that these assets collectively represent nearly $1 trillion in consumer spending power.

In the post, Blandin asserts that despite the size of the market, consumers still find difficulty in accessing, using, and keeping track of their digital assets.

The Journey of Bakkt

Two years ago, Bakkt was launched with the vision of building trust in and unlocking the value of digital assets for institutions and consumers alike and had been really focused on making sure that the vision was delivered.

Last year, Bakkt helped to launch the first end-to-end regulated Bitcoin market and also an institutional Bitcoin custody offering.

Bakkt has more to offer

Bakkt tends to solve the consumers’ problem with digital assets through its app that would be launched “this summer.” This app would enable the consumers to aggregate all their digital assets into one digital wallet, be it their airline miles, loyalty points from their local grocery store or bitcoin they have purchased.

This app has earlier been promised to be launched by mid-2020. The app would also enable the consumers to use their assets for a variety of activities ranging from shopping to converting assets into cash.

Blandin expresses his excitement about the app to be launched: “I’m excited at our potential to unlock nearly $1 trillion of digital assets when the Bakkt app launches this summer.”

Furthermore, the digital assets platform has also been integrated with Starbucks, as released in a tweet by Bakkt President, Adam White. In the Starbucks app, “Bakkt Cash” now appears as a payment option and customers can also select it in order to sign up for Bakkt’s early access program. This direct integration with companies is the Bakkt’s app first case and it is aimed at the reduction of payment costs for merchants and also improves their bottom line.

Bakkt is really cooking up something spectacular in its forthcoming app. To have early access to the app, click here.

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