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Team behind decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar attracts $5m in series A round

OB1, the company behind decentralized bitcoin marketplace OpenBazaar, has raised $5 million in a series A round led by OMERS Ventures, the venture capital arm of the OMERS pension fund.

The round also drew support from Bitmain, as well as existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, BlueYard Capital, Digital Currency Group, and angel investor William Mougayar. It follows OB1’s funding round announced in late 2016 in which it raised $3 million.

“OB1 allows individuals, living anywhere, to buy and sell as part of a truly global marketplace” said Jim Orlando, Managing Partner, OMERS Ventures. “We are excited about the potential represented by OpenBazaar’s decentralized peer-to-peer protocol, and are thrilled about the various implementation paths that Brian and the rest of his team are pursuing.”

According to the official release, OB1 will continue to lead development of OpenBazaar to give users more flexibility and control over how they buy and sell goods and services online. In 2018, the company plans to roll out web and mobile versions of the application as well as giving users new ways to trade with each other, such as making requests and buying and selling cryptocurrencies. OB1 is also expanding the services it offers to users on OpenBazaar, such as the Verified Moderators program, released this week.

“Our goal is to see the OpenBazaar protocol and software empower business owners and consumers alike to shift away from the corporate-controlled legacy systems and engage in ecommerce in a free, fair and independent way,” OB1 CEO Brian Hoffman said.

Since the launch of the updated 2.0 platform near the end of 2017, over 40,000 nodes globally have joined the OpenBazaar network. In early 2018, OpenBazaar enhanced its value to buyers and sellers by enabling purchases with Bitcoin Cash and Zcash.

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