Japanese Finance Giant Nomura Invests in Smart Contract Auditing Startup

Japan financial group Nomura has invested in Y Combinator-backed smart contract auditing startup Quantstamp.

U.S.-based Quantstamp announced Wednesday that it is setting up a subsidiary in Japan following a “significant” investment from Nomura Holdings and Tokyo-listed internet group Digital Garage.

Chuzaburo Yagi, senior managing director in charge of innovations at Nomura Holdings, said:

“As blockchain technology is adopted in the financial world, smart contracts will play an increasingly important role. Security assurances through auditing and certification will become increasingly indispensable.”

Quantstamp’s new limited liability subsidiary in Japan aims to help the country’s startups and corporations in using "secure" blockchain technology. Smart contracts are self-executing pieces of code that can be implemented on blockchains to enforce specific sets of rules.

The market for smart contract-based applications is “strong” in Japan and will “only be growing,” said Quantstamp’s co-founder and CEO Richard Ma.

Founded in 2017, Quantstamp provides an automated tool for developers and users that helps “identify and secure vulnerabilities” in smart contracts, as well as auditing services for large-scale blockchain projects aimed to ensure security. It joined seed accelerator Y Combinator back in 2017.

Quantstamp said its services have so far been used to secure more than $500 million of transaction value.

Last May, Nomura partnered with cryptocurrency wallet startup Ledger and investment firm Global Advisors to explore building a digital asset custody solution.

While, in January 2018, Digital Garage subsidiary Crypto Garage announced that it is working with bitcoin infrastructure startup Blockstream to test the issuance of a Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin.

Nomura image via Shutterstock