21

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21 Inc.
Founded2013
Founder(s)Matthew Pauker, Balaji Srinivasan
Website21.co
 Twitter 

21 (formerly 21e6) was a Bitcoin startup founded amidst the November 2013 bubble. In March 2015, they announced having raised $116 million in venture capital.[1]

In October 2017, 21.co has rebranded to Earn.com.[2] In April 2018, Earn.com was acquired by Coinbase.[3][4]

History

Early history and secrecy

21 was founded in 2013 as 21e6, with the name being a reference to the controlled supply cap of the bitcoin economy.[1] In November, it was the subject of intense speculation after revealing $5 million in venture capital from a regulatory filing.[1] Co-founder Balaji Srinivasan stated that the startup's secrecy was "solely for pragmatic reasons – we didn’t have anything to say to the world,"[1] and they would not reveal their plans until May 2015.[5]

Venture capital

By March 2015, 21 raised over $100 million in venture capital from numerous investors including Qualcomm Inc.,[1][6][5] RRE Ventures,[1] Yuan Capital,[1] Cisco,[6][5] Andreessen Horowitz,[1] Khosla Ventures,[1] Data Collective,[1] PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel[1] and Max Levchin,[1] eBay Inc. co-founder Jeff Skoll,[1][5] Dropbox Inc. CEO Drew Houston,[1] Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi,[1][5] Zynga Inc. co-founder Mark Pincus,[1][5] and former ARM Holdings PLC CSO Mark Templeton.[6][5]

Product

Between 2013 and 2018 the company's main focus was on mining operations. In April 2018, co-founder Balaji Srinivasan, who became the CEO of a company in May 2015, announced that the company gradually reduced its mining operations and focused on building a new software to handle micropayments: the paid email and tasks product.[7]

References

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