Digital assets. Bitcoin transaction. Cryptocurrency. Blockchain. Words of the future? Not necessarily. These words, although they’re a bit foreign to some, are becoming more and more mainstream, and we’re all starting to notice.
Although blockchain technology seems new, it’s been around for a little while. In 2014, Jonathan Johnson and a few more forward-thinkers at Overstock decided it was time to start investing in this emerging technology. They developed Medici Ventures to focus on finding diverse companies that use blockchain to change the world. What started as small investments has grown over time to be an impressive portfolio, and one they hope to keep growing. Overstock is pleased to announce that Medici Ventures, Inc. will officially be converting to a limited partnership, an entity with Pelion Venture Partners
“We’re really excited about this change,” says Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson. “We’ve been handling a lot of things with Medici Ventures and it’s nice to be able to have Pelion come in and help us focus on the things we need to.”
Pelion Venture Partners has a strong foothold in Utah, and the Medici’s portfolio has a lot of fantastic Utah companies. “We want to help Utah companies,” says Matt Mosmen, General Partner at Pelion Venture. “We’ve got a good sized portfolio with Medici, and we’re always looking at Utah companies along with others. We’re hoping to focus on the current companies and really help them grow and succeed.”
Although from the outside things might seem like they’re functioning as normal, this change takes a huge burden off those working on both Medici and Overstock internally. The partners at Pelion will do what they do best- “[S]eek great minds, resourceful innovators, and resilient entrepreneurs... and add our collective expertise as executives, managers, technologists, lawyers, and financial experts.” (pelionvp.com/about/)
“Overstock has always been, first and foremost, a technology focused company,” continues Jonathan. “In 1999 we started doing ecommerce when it was cutting edge. We saw blockchain in 2014 and knew it was another cutting edge opportunity for us. That’s how we run our business, staying current on budding, new technology, and putting it into the hands of people who can springboard it into the future.”
This process has been months in the making, and both Overstock and Pelion are pleased at how relatively seamless the process has been. “We love the Silicon Slopes community, and we anticipate great things,” says Jonathan. Read the full press release here.
