In Q2 of 2017, Outlier Ventures were the first institutional backers of the IOTA initiative in advance of their listing on exchanges. The project perfectly fit the Outlier Ventures’ Convergence investment strategy and there was a significant synergy between the respective corporate relationships. Since then we have worked together to engage the European Industry 4.0 ecosystem, and subsequently new partners like Robert Bosch Venture Capital have made public investments in IOTA and become important strategic partners.
The IOTA team has now officially formed its foundation in Germany, a significant achievement and a first for crypto, and is currently formalising the foundation’s board and supervisory groups which will include a number of industry heavyweights such as Bosch, Volkswagen, and others. Given the high level of interest in these positions from key industry partners and the desire to keep governance light and agile, it has been mutually agreed that Outlier Ventures will not take a seat on the foundation.
Jamie Burke, Founder and CEO of Outlier Ventures, commented: “IOTA has made great progress, as well as demonstrating the appetite of our local corporate ecosystem to be first movers. We are believers in the potential of concepts like the Tangle to be a generational leap from blockchains and a key component of our vision for the Convergence Economy, which sees a merging of deep tech like IoT with distributed ledger technology.”
David Sønstebø, Co-founder of IOTA, commented: “At IOTA we are very grateful for the contribution of all our advisors, including Outlier Ventures, in helping us advance the development of this revolutionary technology that will catalyze interoperability, permissionless innovation, and the sharing of resources between internet-of-things devices.
