Elliptic: A Company that helps you Identify Unlawful Activity in Blockchain Transactions.

Launched in 2013, Elliptic uses machine learning and graph analysis to identify unlawful activity in blockchain transactions. Blockchain, a decentralized ledger of transactions, is the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

A need for a secure trading market for bitcoin comes hand in hand with the need for secure stores for digital currencies. Elliptic is on the forefront of this space, determined to be the “top global insured storage service”.  In 2014, the startup rolled out its first product known as Elliptic Vault. The product offers customers ‘deep cold storage’, meaning the privately encrypted key is kept offline and in a secure location. Since its launch, Elliptic has seen hedge funds and law firms accept Elliptic Vault for their businesses.

The Elliptic Company identifies illegal activity on the Bitcoin blockchain and offer actionable intelligence to law enforcement agencies and financial institutions. The company’s technology traces transaction activity of entities through the blockchain automatically and instantly. It uncovers complex dealings between entities with complete transparency and precision. Elliptic’s proprietary database provides auditable proof of identity to millions of bitcoin addresses across many real world entities. Consequently, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies evaluate and investigate suspicious activity on the bitcoin blockchain with confidence,

Many payment processors and bitcoin exchanges have trusted Elliptic. The company has evaluated risk on over $2 billion in transactions. The company’s tool enables them to scale investigation, without the need to scale their team.

In 2015, Elliptic received the security product of the year award from The Banker magazine and KPMG selected it as a “Top 10 Global Emerging Star” among startups in 2016.

In March, this year, the London and New York-based firm received £3.5m ($5m) in Series.  The firm announced that the fund would be used to help crackdown on bitcoin crime.

“The funding boost will help the company to build its network with International law enforcement agencies,  where it has given evidence to  fight sophisticated cybercrime such as drug sales, money laundering, theft,  and arms trafficking,” Elliptic chief executive and co-founder, James Smith, said.

Last month, Elliptic announced that it received $2m in seed-funding from Octopus Investments. With the funding, the company will be able to strengthen its footing as the trusted provider of enterprise digital asset services in the UK market and further its product development. The company expects to soon provide a set of enterprise services intended to reconcile and traditional finance.

The firm’s investors include Digital Currency Group John Power, KRW Schindler Private Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, Santander InnoVentures and Manuel Silva Martinez.

The current team members in Elliptic are James Smith, Founder/CEO; Adam Joyce, Chief Scientist; Tom Robinson, COO; Christopher Fretter, Data Scientist; Tuan Le, Software Engineer; and Kevin Beardsley, Head of Business Development.