The company announced on Thursday that it raised $4.6 million in a first round of funding from Dragonfly Capital, with backing from Mirana Ventures, along with angel investors.
“We see a huge market opportunity to make these traditional assets such as stocks and commodities accessible to anyone around the world with an internet connection,” Tang, co-founder and CEO of HelloTrade, said in an interview with Fortune. “We believe that the next frontier of blockchain adoption will be the movement of these traditional markets on chain.”
HelloTrade’s value proposition is similar to that of trading platforms like Robinhood and Revolut. Tang says those companies can be clunky and hard to use, and that HelloTrade will focus on building a better user interface.
The startup’s product has not launched yet, but Tang said he expects it to launch at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. The company currently has about 10 employees.
Tang and Raich often heard a saying at BlackRock: you spend decades building up trust, and you can lose it in a matter of minutes. It’s an ethos they have brought to HelloTrade, which is why they plan to spend their new capital in part to educate individuals around the world about the benefits of blockchain technology, and to invest in the safety and security of their product.
