Blockchain FinTech New Players

Morgan Creek Participate in RealBlocks Funding Round

Digital assets focused institutional investment manager, Morgan Creek Digital, has participated in a funding round in support of tokenized real estate startup, RealBlocks.

RealBlocks confirmed details of its latest funding via a press release which was published earlier today.  Whilst Morgan Creek didn’t lead the funding round, its involvement is still significant as it is well known in the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology sector.  Co-founder Anthony Pompliano is a well known figure in his own right – active in the crypto media via his podcast, ‘Off The Chain’ and via social media.

Funding was led by Science Inc. in the $3.1 million investment round.  Alongside Morgan Creek, the other backers include Zelkova Ventures, Ulu Ventures and Cross Culture Ventures.  RealBlocks claim to democratize access to private equity by way of tokenization of some of the worlds leading funds.  Its platform allows for seamless fundraising and investment in real estate.  By harnessing blockchain technology, the company is opening up investment to a worldwide investing public, enabling investors to directly purchase micro-shares in leading funds with FIAT currency or cryptocurrency.

The founder and CEO of RealBlocks had this to say on the development:

“With the support of our strategic investors, we’re accelerating development of our product and adoption of blockchain technology for real estate, an industry that previously hasn’t seen much innovation.  This is a great opportunity to improve the investment experience for both sponsors and investors while also minimizing friction throughout the entirety of the process.”

RealBlocks clarify that there are three main components to its service offering:

  1. Global Access: Because its system utilizes blockchain infrastructure in terms of distribution, its platform facilitates frictionless and efficient access for investors beyond the United States.  In turn, this accelerates capital formation for the sponsors of real estate projects.
  2. Institutional Real Estate: Investors on the platform will be given access to the pick of the best private equity funds worldwide.
  3. Instant Liquidity: RealBlocks provides investors with a means through which they can obtain liquidity through peer to peer trading on what would otherwise be an illiquid asset class.

The RealBlocks investor receives an asset backed token that acts as a bona fide means of ownership of the real estate that is offered via the platform.

“2019 is going to be an incredibly important year for blockchain projects”, said Anthony Pompliano of Morgan Creek Digital.  “After years of experimentation and development, the market expects these companies to solve real problems now.  RealBlocks is one of the teams that has a working product and has shown they can execute at a high level – that is one of the reasons why we are excited to invest.  One of our core theses at Morgan Creek Digital has been that every stock, bond, currency and commodity will be tokenized at some point in the future.  RealBlocks has developed a solution that is going to help the best players in the real estate industry join the blockchain revolution.”

The principal investor behind the funding round – Science Inc – are also optimistic about the leveraging of blockchain technology to revolutionize business practices.  Its CEO and founder, Greg Gilman, said that “we believe that the real estate market, like nearly all asset classes, will be increasingly data driven and digitized or digitally native, and we look forward to building on our history of transformative companies”.

Morgan Creek has been active in investment in the crypto space as recently as last month when it participated in a $4 million funding round of BlockFi – a crypto startup that provides U.S. dollar based loans to clients who offer cryptocurrency as collateral.