Israel based Blockchain startup Colu has announced that it has raised $9.6 million from venture capital investors Aleph (headed by former Benchmark partner Michael Eisenberg), Spark Capital, and Digital Currency Group, as well as former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer.
The current financing round brings the amount raised by the company to over $12 million.
Colu is a two year old startup which uses its technology to allow local businesses to create their own currency. Local businesses can use their own created currency to strengthen the bond with customers. Colu clients can create their own currency using Colu’s Blockchain-based technology without the need for a financial intermediary such as a bank or debit/credit card company.
Colu – which began life as a colored coins tech company – is for now focusing its effort very locally in its own Tel Aviv neighborhood. However using the funds from the current financing round already has plans and deals in place to expand to places as far as the Barbados and Brazil.
Colu CEO Amos Meiri told Bitcoin industry site Coindesk:
We have the wallet and we have a control panel where the manager of the local economy can issue a distributed currency, gain access to data about the economy and manage it from one place.