Stellar Startup Merges with Chain, to Reborn as Interstellar
San Francisco-based distributed ledger technology company Chain has been acquired by Lightyear, an entity powered by the Stellar network in an undisclosed agreement.
Announced last week, Lightyear will be re-named to Interstellar concurrent with the merger, a company release states. Chain, that builds enterprise-grade blockchain products backed by financial giants Visa, Nasdaq, and Citigroup, will offer its cloud product, Sequence, to Interstellar’s portfolio, allowing organizations to track assets while moving between private ledgers and the Stellar network, it added.
Jed McCaleb, co-founded of the Stellar Development Foundation and Lightyear, will be CTO of Interstellar. According to him, the merger will “help organizations build on Stellar.” He further said:
“Chain’s team has led the market for enterprise adoption of blockchain technology, which is a critical component of building a future where money and digital assets move over open protocols.”
At present, Stellar (XLM) ranks as the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $3.6 billion. With the acquisition, Interstellar will receive Chain’s enterprise products and customer base, enabling organizations to issue, exchange, and manage assets on a public network.
Chain had previously raised more than $43 million from a variety of financial institutions including Capital One, Citigroup, as well as tech-focused funds such as Khosla Ventures, Blockchain Capital, and Pantera Capital.
Interstellar will ease enterprises to create financial services and products with the help of the Stellar open network. Chain’s CEO Adam Ludwin will serve as the CEO of new Interstellar. He stated,
“Chain has worked from inside the enterprise while Stellar has focused on the network between organizations. As a single team we will have a complete view and set of capabilities to make value-over-IP a reality.”
With the launch, Interstellar will have its headquarters in San Francisco, with office operations from New York City and Singapore. Initially, the startup aims to employ 60 employees, the report concluded.
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