David Marcus, the former crypto chief at Meta (formerly Facebook), announced Lightspark, a new company to be built on the bitcoin-based Lightning Network.
- "I wanted to share that we are launching a new company called Lightspark to explore, build and extend the capabilities and utility of Bitcoin," Marcus said in a tweet. "As a first step, we are actively assembling a team to dive deeper into the Lightning Network."
- The new venture has received an undisclosed round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Paradigm with participation from Thrive Capital, Coatue, Felix Capital, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners and Zeev Ventures.
- Marcus previously founded Zong, a telecom billing network that was later acquired by PayPal. He led PayPal's mobile payments division and then became president. In 2014, Marcus moved to Meta, where he led Facebook Messenger and then payments products, and developed the much-delayed stablecoin project libra.
- "David's latest project, Lightspark, aims to do nothing less than reinvent the biggest and most obsolete parts of financial services by building on the Lightning Network," Dana Stalder of Matrix Partners - an early investor in Marcus' Zong - wrote in a blog post. "The team will share more information as time goes on, but suffice it to say, there is no one I trust more than David to start and lead such an ambitious company."
- "Downturns are good moments to focus on building and creating value with people who are aligned with the mission," Marcus concludes. "We're looking forward to diving into Lightning, learning more and collaborating with the community. We'll share more about our work as we make progress!"