TRM Labs raises $14M to enhance blockchain compliance and tracking

Blockchain forensics and compliance firm TRM Labs said Thursday it has raised $14 million in a new early-stage round of funding.

The Series A round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners. PayPal Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Blockchain Capital also participated.

TRM Labs uses digital forensics and integrates dozens of blockchain distributed ledgers to track and trace transactions across them to analyze virtual assets. The goal is to detect real-time signs of fraud and financial crimes such as money laundering.

As more enterprise businesses across the world begin to adopt blockchain technologies such as cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens into their business models, compliance and risk management has become more complex.

“The team at TRM Labs is building an extraordinary company that is going to be critically important in helping financial institutions safely transition to a new financial system for the digital age,” said Ethan Kurzweil, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, who has joined the TRM board.

Digital assets on blockchains are still an emerging class being explored by numerous industries and their pitfalls are difficult to navigate. Fortunately, blockchains themselves ongoing records up-to-date records of transactions that, with proper regulatory compliance, can keep everyone involved safe.

“At TRM we have built the next generation in blockchain intelligence with the mission of building a safer financial system for billions of people,” said Esteban Castaño, co-founder and chief executive of TRM Labs.

The total value of assets in decentralized finance protocols, such as blockchain smart contracts, increased by a factor of 18 in the past year, to $13 billion from $630 million, according to a report from the World Economic Forum. And now large banks have even begun to offer cryptocurrency-related services.

“TRM will also continue to be a strong partner to governments and regulators around the globe as they work to ensure that illicit actors don’t take advantage of this new financial system,” said Kurzweil.

Competitors to TRM Labs include Elliptic Enterprises Ltd., which raised $23 million in late 2019, and Chainalysis Inc., which recently raised $100 million.

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