South Korea's Shinhan Bank participates in $2 million investment in blockchain venture

     Comment: Asia is still in a relatively conservative position in the development trend of blockchain technology. Japan has been full of doubts about digital currency due to the collapse of Mt.Gox exchange. South Korea has not made many moves in this regard. Relatively speaking, there are many blockchain and digital currency start-ups emerging in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The participation of Shinhan Bank this time is expected to promote the development of the blockchain industry in South Korea.

Blockchain remittance startup Streami has raised $2 million in seed funding.

Although the startup is still new, its backers include Shinhan Bank, one of South Korea’s largest financial services providers, which invested a total of 500 million won (about $427,000) in the round.

Shinhan Bank is a wholly owned bank of Shinhan Financial Group (established in September 2001).

Shinhan Bank's credit ratings are A- and A3 by Standard & Poor's and Moody's respectively. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2003. It has more than 1,000 branches around the world, including Korea, with more than 14,000 employees. It has 23 overseas branches and legal entities in 9 countries. In April 2006, it successfully completed the merger with Chohung Bank (the first bank in Korea with a history of 100 years), becoming one of the largest commercial banks in Korea.

Streami’s backers also include Shinhan Data Systems, an IT unit of Shinhan Bank; ICB, a South Korean payments company that has partnered with Asian e-commerce giant Alibaba; and Bluepoint Partners, a venture capital firm comprised of a group of angel investors.

They primarily target the Asian remittance market from South Korea to China, which includes markets such as the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Streami aims to help people in the region bypass illegal remittance services.

Junhaeng Lee, CEO and founder of the company, told reporters:

“Streami’s main competitors, until now, have generally been traditional remittance service providers and some illegal underground money houses, which account for the majority of outbound remittances from South Korea.”

He added:

“Streami will bring trusted, regulated liquidity through crypto network technology.”

Lee told reporters that this round of financing funds will mainly be used to open branches in cities other than Seoul and recruit new talents.

Although the company has no revenue yet, it said its ultimate revenue plan is to charge service fees to institutional clients.

ICB CEO Han Yong Lee told reporters that his company participated in this round of financing in order to better explore blockchain technology.

He said:

“We hope to provide some new Internet financial services, such as cross-border remittances based on blockchain technology, and cooperate with Streami. In addition, we invested in Streami because we believe in their potential.”