The 5-year-old British-Polish fintech Billon Group has completed £2 million investment supported by the Future Fund scheme, available to promising UK tech businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Billon secured investment commitments from angel investors and VCs of £1 million matched by the UK government through the British Business Bank for an additional £1 million. As part of the agreement, Billon has the opportunity to attract additional private investments for up to £500,000 by the end of October 2020, with all investments in the form of convertible loan notes.
Wojtek Kostrzewa, CEO Billon Group, comments:
“The Future Fund agreement allows Billon to stay focused on helping clients pursue digital transformation and new business models for a world changed by the pandemic. I am very grateful to our investors and the Future Fund for an immediate and positive response at the height of this crisis.”
The Future Fund was established by the UK government in April 2020 to support startups and innovative companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn. The program requires private sector lead investment, with the government contributing on a match funded basis. So far, the fund has invested in 320 companies for a total amount of over £320 million.
Anand Phanse, CFO Billon Group, adds:
“This new funding in 2020 will support the next phase of Billon’s development, and represents an endorsement that investors seek pure distributed ledger technology companies that are better suited for solving national currency and personal data challenges than certain early blockchain architectures. The pandemic will open new opportunities for innovative companies like Billon.”
Billon previously raised over $13 million of equity from investors, including the recent close of its Series A. As well, the company received an additional $6 million in R&D grants from programs such as EU Horizon 2020 (now rebranded as EIC Accelerator), the Polish National Centre for Research and Development, and Innovate UK.
Billon created a DLT protocol and system specifically for tokenizing and transacting national currency and processing sensitive data in compliance with regulations, thus unleashing the transformational capabilities of blockchain technologies in the regulated world.
Billon’s underlying protocol was designed for high throughput levels and low cost of maintenance in a range of environments. The system supports clients developing their own enterprise-grade applications in areas of Accounts & Transactions, Trusted Documents, and Identity & Data Sharing.
Billon Group Ltd. was founded in the UK in 2015, following several years of R&D in Poland. Its unique DLT protocol has been supported by many R&D grants, including the EU Horizon 2020 program. Billon is licensed to issue electronic money by regulators in the UK and Poland.
Billon’s growing client list includes leading companies such as FIS, Raiffeisen Bank International and BIK (the Polish credit reporting agency). Billon has offices in London and Warsaw.
For more information, visit www.billongroup.com.
