Comcast Ventures is aggressively seeking investments into blockchain technology, forming a five-member team it calls “The Blockchain Crew” to spearhead the strategy, according to cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk.
Comcast Ventures Managing Director Gil Beyda leads a team that includes Head of Funds Amy Banse, Managing Director Sam Landman, Principal Teddy Himler and Morgan Polotan—who also works with Beyda at Genacast.
According to CoinDesk, the team meets “multiple times a week” to discuss blockchain trends and investment opportunities. The underpinning goal is to learn about how the encryption technology can help Comcast in product development, and not as much about looking for stellar growth opportunities.
In January, Comcast Ventures joined IBM in backing accelerator mState, which invests in blockchain startups. The cable company VC arm also has made a recent investment in Blockchange Ventures, another blockchain fund.
"Our mandate is first and foremost to find great investments," Beyda told CoinDesk. "So, we're a financially driven fund, a returns-driven fund."
Blockchain is, of course, the hottest buzzword in technology right now. And rather and try to hazard a definition, we’ll just say it's a way to protect and anonymize data within transactions by removing centralized control. The technology is used in cryptocurrency and applications like advanced advertising.
Yesterday, Multichannel News reported that Comcast is looking at ways that blockchain can be used in home automation.