Kakao Investment has invested in Orbs, Israel’s blockchain infrastructure startup.

Orbs announced Thursday that it had received an investment from Kakao Investment, the venture arm of Korea’s internet giant Kakao Corp. Orbs, the first blockchain startup in which Kakao Investment has invested, said it would focus on protocol development and growth. Kakao Investment’s decision to invest is based on Orbs’ existing collaborative ties with Ground X, Kakao’s blockchain subsidiary.

“Kakao Investment’s relationship with Orbs reflects our regional strength and the potential we offer to make blockchain a powerful growth engine for its business units,” said Orbs CEO and co-founder Uriel Peled, adding that Ground X will expand the scope of the blockchain market with Orbs. Kris Park, executive director of Kakao Investment, said, “Kakao Investment is focused on identifying key trendsetters and innovators in the blockchain sector and Orbs is a great example.”

Orbs was recognized as an emerging blockchain startup by Gartner, the world’s leading research and advisory company, in August. Orbs, a public blockchain complementing base-layer protocol, is built for the needs of decentralized applications (DApps) that need safer, scalable and cost-efficient solutions. Orbs recently relocated headquarters to Seoul to expand its business in Korea and has been focusing on research and development in cooperation with Ground X and Terra, a stablecoin project. On Aug. 29, Orbs signed a strategic MOU on technical cooperation with Ground X. /shim@decenter.kr

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