Foundation Devices has raised a $7 million seed round to double down on its "sovereign computing platform," which it says is empowering its users.
Passport, the company's main product, costs $260 and looks like a mid-2000s Vertu luxury phone, but is actually a hardware wallet built with security and a mobile-first approach in mind.
“The entire cryptocurrency space is built on a foundation of open source. It only works because it’s open. Our strong belief is that open source software must run on open source hardware.” Zach Herbert, CEO, Foundation Devices
The company's approach to hardware wallet is to open source both the hardware and software for each device it releases. If you're so inclined, you can look at every line of code, every component, every mechanical design, and every aspect of the design of every one of it's products. Open source is a core part of the company.
Despite having more than $600 million under management, Polychain Capital led the Foundation's $7 million seed round.
Some of the investors in the round include new investors and existing investors. The investment was made on a SAFE note. The director of portfolio at Bolt was an early investor in Foundation Devices. The investment into Foundation was made by Bolt.
In March this year, the company launched the second version of its flagship product, the original Passport. At the Baukunst Creative Technologist conference earlier this year, the company's founder and CEO,Zach Herbert, gave a refreshing take on the future of cripto There is a recording of the talk on the internet.
The implosion of FTX is a wake-up call regarding self-Custody. It is now clear that storing your coins on an exchange is not a good idea. It is a wake-up call that regulators are not actually protecting you. It is a wake up call for the media. According to Herbert, the mainstream media coverage of FTX has been terrible. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other respected media outlets give excellent coverage of the fraud that took place, but I don't know how you can read their coverage. You can find better coverage on the social networking site. People are starting to wake up. Many people have lost their life savings.
Despite the FTX mess, the crypto market looks to the future
Foundation was founded in April 2020 and focuses on building open source hardware and software products. The company chose to manufacture its products in the U.S. because of its focus on security.
There is a security imperative to be manufactured in the US. It is only going to get crazy as we move towards a multipolar world. Herbert said that he wouldn't trust a device to store his digital currency. I would like to be on the factory floor. I live in the Boston area. I work at the factory for a couple of weeks.
As Crypto exchanges struggle in a bear market, are hardware wallets about to make a comeback?
The company's devices look very different than hardware ones. It wasn't by mistake.
The visual language of art Deco inspired what we are aiming for. Colorful and ornate design is what we're embracing. Herbert said that thecryptocurrencies industry has focused on dark colors. I don't believe that's right for our industry. It should be about optimism. Our design should reflect the idea of a counter to the future.
Herbert said that the company tries to play a large part in empowering users to pull their bitcoin off of exchanges.
Herbert was interviewing to get a deeper look at the company and its hopes and dreams. We discuss the funding round, the need for open source and more. The interview has been edited to make it clearer.
The CEO is at Foundation. The image is from the foundation
The perfect person to run this company is you.
I am a mechanical engineer and have been obsessed with computers since I was a child. I became enamored with the virtual currency after I learned about it. I was interested in the investment potential, under the idea that as demand increases, so will the price of the virtual currency. My views have changed as a result of the culture of Bitcoins. I began to understand the importance of sound money, of sovereignty, of privacy, of the need to separate money and state when I was consuming a lot of bitcoin related content.
After graduating from Harvard Business School, I joined a Boston-based company as head of operations and eventually as COO. Hardware and software were built by us I kept thinking about the lack of self-Custody tools. Foundation Devices was launched by me and my teammates.
I think I have two different identities. The first is a tech executive, a startup founder and an engineering graduate. My professional identity is that. My real identity is that of aBitcoiner. Foundation has been able to achieve its success because of these conflicting identities, as well as the fact that we have been able to raise venture money for ideas that have historically been considered fringe.
How does this raise money help the company move forward?
A lot of people were hurt this year because of the collapse of FTX and other companies. Privacy is required for true sovereignty. We are making our privacy features accessible to everyday users in order to differentiate ourselves. Envoy makes it so that we can't see users'ip addresses or know anything about their identities if we connect to the TOR network by default.
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