DeFi Startup Findora Weighs Funding Options, Plans First Apps in 2020

Stanford-based Findora, a developer of a public blockchain for building financial applications, is in talks with investors as the startup is looking to announce their first apps and partnerships in the first quarter of 2020, John Powers, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) told Cryptonews.com.

Their website states that the platform “will create a global network of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) based financial services applications.” In layman’s terms, as the CSO explained, Findora is a fully decentralized project, and what it’s doing is “building a highway and a couple of really fast cars, to show financial institutions and government agencies how fast these cars can run. After that, we’re hoping they will come and build their own apps on top of our framework.”

What differentiates them from other projects focused on decentralized finance (DeFi), is “a combination of transparency and confidentiality,” according to the CSO who ran Stanford’s USD 25 billion endowment fund for a decade. Meanwhile, Balaji Srinivasan, the former Chief Technology Officer of major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has also recently joined the project as an advisor.

The platform stated that it will facilitate compliance requirements while still protecting confidential data. Protecting such data works on a need-to-know basis, for example if there is a tax app, the taxman needs to know how much you earned, but he is the only one that should have this access. This is one of Findora’s main strong points, Powers said, adding that the startup is also already working with regulators.

According to the CSO, the company is currently in talks with multiple undisclosed investors. The project is being funded by angel investors, and they are currently looking for additional funding. At the moment, they’re exploring different avenues, looking at different options, Powers said without providing any further details.

In either case, while the framework is currently in the works, the CSO said that by the first quarter of next year, the startup’s very first apps should be ready. The first applications built on Findora’s platform, called ‘Finapps’ and developed internally, are said to include a smart asset ecosystem, an open banking platform, and a peer-to-peer lending platform.

In regards to the FIN (Findora Infrastructure Network), which is Findora’s central network that offers interoperability between public, private and consortia ledgers, Powers said that they are in talks with some private ledgers at the moment, but he could not share names at this point.

Furthermore, the team is planning to launch a token, that is needed for their blockchain validators, Powers said, without elaborating in more detail on the launch. Validators will own tokens, as a signal of the network’s operability and maintenance. Tokens represent the stakeholder’s commitment to the network.

Meanwhile, Powers himself doesn’t own cryptocurrencies, saying that their future is not clear and that he doesn’t believe at the moment that they can go very far.