The digital currency (SJCX) of the blockchain-based cloud storage network Storj, posted significant gains (+90 percent) today after the startup announced it had raised $3 million in seed funding from venture capitalists in Google Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and Techstars, among other Angel investors and VC firms.
The new funding round comes on the heels of another investment in January of this year: a $100k Grant from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Today’s announcement brings the total amount of VC capital funneled into Storj over the past three years to $5.4 million:
-$500k of Non Equity Assistance in August of 2014
-$1.8M is seed funding in May of 2016 from TechSquare Labs.
-Iterative Instinct invested an undisclosed amount in October of 2016.
-$100k in January of 2017.
-$3M in February of 2017.
The 7-person startup is aiming to disrupt the centralized, uncesecure cloud storage industry by creating a decentralized marketplace where storage providers, called “farmers,” are able to offer their free storage space in exchange for digital tokens (SJCX).
"The decentralized aspect of Storj means there are no central servers to be compromised, and because of the use of client-side encryption, only the end users have access to their unencrypted files and encryption keys.," said Shawn Wilkinson, Founder and Lead Developer at Storj.
According to the press release, Storj has amassed 7,500 farmers since launching in 2014.
Storj Labs Inc., also went into partnership with Heroku Elements Marketplace in November of last year, and announced its first first Fortune 500 client, Atlanta-based COX Enterprises, during the Venture Atlanta 2016 conference.
Digital currency investors reacted favorably to today’s announcement, sending the exchange rate of the SJCX/BTC pair to a 69-day high of 0.00021 ($0.24) on the Poloniex exchange:
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