Chainalysis inks deal with Europol and raises $1.6m seed round
Michael Grønager, CEO of Chainalysis
Chainalysis, a New York-based cyber security start-up, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) on collaborating to fight online crime.
Chainalysis aims to change “negative headlines where digital currencies have been connected to fraud and cybercrime” and is tracking digital identities on the blockchain.
The start-up says its software detects suspicious activity in real time and provides investigation tools for law enforcement to tackle cybercrime. The MoU between Europol and Chainalysis will provide collaboration and information sharing.
Michael Grønager, CEO of Chainalysis, says it has already “worked extensively” with regulated entities and law enforcement agencies in the US, Asia, and Europe; and describes the latest MoU as “an important next step”.
The collaboration with Europol coincides with Chainalysis completing their $1.6m seed finance round led by Point Nine Capital. Techstars, Digital Currency Group, Funders Club and Converge VP also participated in the round.
In October 2015, and in a separate deal, Barclays chose to use Chainalysis’ compliance tools to enable it to interact with businesses that transact on the blockchain and meet their compliance requirements.
Chainalysis says the “majority of banks have thus far, been unable to safely interact with bitcoin companies”.
The start-up adds that it is the “first” blockchain business to connect the operations of major financial institutions to a public blockchain.
