NYC blockchain startup raises $12.7M from Harvard University, among others

Though it seems like a lifetime ago, it was only last year that we were all debating selling off family heirlooms in order to invest in the great Bitcoin boom. If you managed to hold on to grandma’s pearls through the highs and lows, consider yourself lucky — but blockchain technology is here to stay.

NYC-based Blockstack has built a “parallel internet” where those who access and build on the platform maintain autonomy over all of their own data. The company acts as a sandbox and tutorial center for those curious about the decentralized internet, while also maintaining in-house engineers who work on building blockchain-based apps.

Most recently, Blockstack secured $12.7 million in additional investments. But the funding, which resulted from companies trading real cash for equity and STX token shares, is not actually the company’s first ICO. To date, the firm has raised a total of $52.6 million, in the form of a token offering and a $5.1 million Series A round.

On the surface, Blockstack’s latest news doesn’t seem too strange — but look a little closer and you may be surprised to find that the lead investor in the round is none other than Harvard University’s endowment fund.

According to SEC filings, members of the Harvard Management Company purchased 95,833,333 units of STX tokens at a rate of $0.0132 per token, meaning Harvard invested as much as $12.65 million in the ICO.

When asked for comment on the relationship between Blockstack and Harvard, co-founder Muneeb Ali offered no comment. Still, this is not Harvard’s first foray into the decentralized ledger. The endowment reportedly invested in “at least one cryptocurrency fund” in 2018, according to reports.

MIT, Stanford and Yale have also dipped the toes of their endowments into the blockchain’s sometimes-murky waters.

For blockchain enthusiasts, these investments are a vote of confidence in the potential of the system. As for detractors, Blockstack isn’t particularly concerned: “We believe in the long-term potential of decentralized computing and don’t really pay attention to short-term price fluctuations of crypto assets,” said Ali.

While the masses speculate, Blockstack will be using its Ivy League old money to help build a more private, freer internet. The company currently hosts more than 80 blockchain-based apps on its platform, and the number is increasing. As they say, haters are gonna hate, and blockchain’s gonna chain.