Why We Invested in Notabene

By Peter Johnson
11/10/2021

We are excited to have co-led Notabene’s $10.2mm Series A and be partnering with this uniquely qualified team which is leading the way in enabling regulatory compliance data sharing for crypto transactions.

Crypto regulatory compliance is a headline topic in the news and a hot topic in the boardroom of crypto companies and financial institutions looking to enter the space. At Jump Capital, we believe this will be a key factor for moving the industry forward to mainstream adoption and have been investing in leading crypto compliance companies for a while, including investments in TRM Labs (blockchain analytics and AML compliance) and Eventus (Market surveillance and risk management). With guidance from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) pertaining to the verification of customer information (the “Travel Rule”) now being rolled out by local regulators, implementing a solution in this area is quickly becoming a requirement for most companies involved in the crypto industry around the world.

As companies seek to implement Travel Rule solutions, an overwhelming majority are turning to Notabene. At Jump, we recently conducted a survey of the compliance vendors used by crypto companies. In this survey, we received responses from 27 leading crypto companies, and nearly half indicated that they planned to implement a Travel Rule compliance solution in the next 12 months. Of the respondents that indicated a vendor they planned to use, 90% stated that they planned to use Notabene.

As an investor in a dozen leading crypto exchanges around the world, we also spoke to many exchanges about how they planned to address Travel Rule compliance, and the consistent response was that these companies were either already using Notabene (and very satisfied with the solution) or planning to use Notabene in the near future. Further validating this point, we are pleased to have two Jump portfolio companies, BlockFi and Bitso, participating in this investment round alongside many other fintech and crypto leaders such as F-Prime (round co-lead), Illuminate Financial, CMT Digital, Fenbushi Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Green Visor Capital, and Gemini.

We are also excited to be investing behind a uniquely qualified team that exemplifies founder-market fit. Notabene co-founders Pelle Braendgaard, Andrés Junge, Ania Lipinska, and Alice Nawfal previously founded uPort, a ConsenSys identity startup, and have deep knowledge and experience in the areas of privacy, identity, and data sharing.

At Jump, we believe crypto will be the defining technological innovation of our age and look to invest in companies that will be leaders in moving the industry forward. Notabene is perfectly positioned to be a leader in enabling mainstream crypto adoption by ensuring regulatory compliance for crypto-native companies and financial institutions around the world. We are proud to be supporting them in this mission.

By Peter Johnson
11/10/2021

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