Medici Ventures, the wholly-owned blockchain subsidiary of Overstock.com, was the sole investor at the Series A funding round of blockchain-powered social network Minds with an investment of $6 million.
Blockchain Social Network Minds Raises $6 Million from Overstock.com’s Medici Ventures in Series A Round
The previous seed round in 2013, and equity crowdfunding in 2017, raised $347,300 and $1 million, respectively.
The capital raised at the Series A funding round brings the total to approximately $7.4 million. Patrick Byrne, the founder and chief executive officer at Overstock.com, will join the board of directors of Minds to represent Medici’s interests, said the announcement.
“There has been increasing excitement in recent years over the power of blockchain technology to liberate individuals and organizations. Minds’ work employing blockchain technology as a social media application is the next great innovation toward mainstream use of this world-changing technology.”
According to mobile app metrics by Apptopia, Minds has 180,784 monthly app downloads, 152,015 from Google Play and 28,769 from iTunes. According to SimilarWeb, Minds.com has 4,169,029 monthly web visitors.
Overstock.com’s founder is a firm advocate for blockchain, having launched Medici Ventures in order to help advance distributed ledger technology worldwide as a means to connect the world without transactional middlemen in an era of trust through technology.
The social network founded by chief executive officer Bill Ottman is a signee of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Manila Principles to ensure freedom of speech and expression for its members.
“It makes perfect sense for Patrick Byrne to join Minds’ board of directors. He understands the critical nature of using blockchain technology to help real people as it pertains to the increasingly urgent issues of user rights, privacy and Internet freedom. He shares our strategic vision, and we welcome his voice on the board.”
The blockchain-powered social network has recently launched its crypto token on the Ethereum Mainnet. $MINDS is a tool for users to boost their content, subscribe to media subscriptions and access exclusive content. Users are rewarded with crypto tokens for their contributions to the network.
Overstock.com and Medici Ventures have been active in pursuing their ideological beliefs, and most probably what they consider strategic investment. Byrne’s enterprise is set to undermine what he believes are oppressive financial institutions that control society – Wall Street – with tZERO.
The securities token exchange will be competing with traditional stock exchanges by integrating cryptographically secure distributed ledgers with existing market processes to reduce settlement times and costs, increase transparency, efficiency, and auditability.
Featured image from Shutterstock.