Bitcoin Brokerage River Financial Raises $17M: SEC Filings

High-end bitcoin brokerage River Financial raised $17.3 million in a recent equity sale, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Thursday.

Form D filings reveal two-year-old River aims to raise nearly $500,000 in additional funding for a total of nearly $17.8 million. The firm reported 34 backers in its latest filing but none of them were known at press time.

It was not immediately clear if the $17 million figure includes funds from the $5.7 million seed round River completed last July with backing from Castle Island Ventures, Slow Ventures and a slew of other VCs. Partners at those firms did not respond to multiple CoinDesk inquiries.

CEO Alexander Leishman acknowledged in a brief phone interview Thursday the brokerage was considering pursuing additional funding. He confirmed in a Friday follow-up that River’s counsel had submitted documents to the SEC but declined to elaborate on the round. 

The SEC requires private companies notify the regulator of equity sales within 15 business days of the first sale in a round. The documents filed Thursday with the SEC state River Financial completed its first sale of the round on Jan. 28, 2021.

River’s equity filing comes as the bitcoin-only brokerage embarks on a massive hiring push across compliance, client acquisition and engineering, with at least seven positions open for a team currently only 16 strong, according to the website.

Software job postings indicate River intends to build new services for its iOS app, and is considering taking steps to bolster account security and develop “novel performance reporting features,” projects it offers as examples to prospective hires. 

River serves deep-pocketed bitcoin investors and has in the past insisted it manages a “brokerage” service, not an exchange. It is seeking to refine that white-glove offering already available 32 U.S. states, as evidenced by the client operations analyst position. 

Read the filing: