Swedish bitcoin mining company KnCMiner has announced closing a $15 million funding round, led by Accel Partners. KnCMiner aims to lead the next generation of chip technology, and this funding round will allow them to dramatically increase their bitcoin mining capacity.
The Series B funding round was led by Accel Partners and follows a $14 million Series A funding led by Creandum five months ago. The recent investment will fund a 16-nanometer chip for its mining servers, which is expected to generate Bitcoins at a reliable rate. As one of the most efficient chips in the market, KnCMiner will be able to dramatically increase its mining capacity as well as becoming a trusted, low-cost scale provider of bitcoin mining capacity on a global basis.
Founded in Stockholm in 2013 by datacentre and Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) experts, KnCMiner started by designing and selling bitcoin mining hardware to third party miners, but has been mining bitcoins directly on an industrial scale since February 2014. KnCMiner has generated over $100 million in revenue since launch and re-invested most of its profits in the mining operation.
Bitcoin mining to date has been dominated by individuals who pool their computing resources; however, as the market in bitcoin and other blockchain-based applications matures and expands into the mainstream there is a need for industrial-scale bitcoin mining capacity in regulated markets. A bitcoin miner plays a fundamental role in maintaining the integrity of the Bitcoin network, as it’s the transaction clearing mechanism that eliminates the potential for double-spending. There are very few teams worldwide that have the expertise required to do industrial scale mining, like KnCMiner. The combination of its scale and leading edge architecture will sustain it as a significant player going forward.
KnCMiner is also a technology leader in Bitcoin mining. It has entered the production phase of a 16nm chip with TSMC through its trusted partner Alchip. This is not only TSMC’s first 16nm production for bitcoin mining, but also one of the very first 16nm chips in any segment to enter full production phase.
Sam Cole, co-founder and CEO of KnCMiner, said: “We have invested more than $70 million over the last 12 months into building a world-class bitcoin mining operation and plan to invest a further $150 million over the next 18 months as we become one of the key transaction processors within Bitcoin. We are delighted to be partnering with Accel in this next chapter, as we continue building our brand and relationships within the Bitcoin and broader financial communities.”
Michiel Kotting, Partner at Accel Partners will join the company’s board, whilst Fred Destin of Accel will join as observer. Kotting said: “We are excited to back the KnCMiner team, as they have proven to be world class operators in a very dynamic marketplace. We strongly believe in the long-term potential of Bitcoin technology and see large scale miners like KnCMiner playing a crucial role.”
Staffan Helgesson, General Partner at Creandum stated: “We are happy that Accel Partners are joining us in supporting KnCMiner’s rapid growth. Since we invested in KnCMiner in 2014, they have built a world-class payment processing platform and grown to be one of the leading bitcoin companies globally. We believe KnCMiner will be one of the key infrastructure companies in the bitcoin ecosystem long term.”
Current investors Creandum, GP Bullhound, and angel investor Martin Wattin also contributed to KnCMiner’s Series B funding round.
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I really do hope that it helps as many Bitcoin mining companies have been shutting down or temporarily stopping service. 🙁