Bakkt Raises $300M Series B From Microsoft, Pantera

Crypto derivatives provider Bakkt closed a $300 million Series B fundraising round and shared additional details about its upcoming mobile application in a blog post Monday.

According to the post, authored by CEO Mike Blandina, Microsoft's M12, PayU, Boston Consulting Group, Goldfinch Partners, CMT Digital, Pantera Capital and Bakkt parent firm Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) all participated in the funding round.

Blandina also referenced Bakkt's acquisition of Bridge2 Solutions, a loyalty services provider first announced in February. Bakkt, which focused on launching bitcoin futures and options contracts with its parent firm ICE over the first year of operations, announced in October it would be targeting a retail clientele with a consumer-focused app.

ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher said during a February earnings call he saw the acquisition of Bridge2 as potentially opening Bakkt to an asset class worth $1 trillion.

"I’m excited at our potential to unlock nearly $1 trillion of digital assets when the Bakkt app launches this summer," Blandina wrote Monday. "With the completion of our Series B financing and recent acquisition of Bridge2 Solutions, Bakkt is now a team of 350 employees and powers the loyalty redemption programs for seven of the top 10 financial institutions and over 4,500 loyalty and incentive programs including two of the largest U.S. airlines."

The company plans to launch the app by the summer, Blandina said.

“Digital assets have been around for decades, and we all have way more value there than we realize. We’re laser focused on getting consumers access to that value and making it as easy to spend as if it were cash," Bakkt President Adam White told CoinDesk.