On Monday (March 8), Norwegian industrial giant Aker ASA announced that it had “established Seetee AS (‘Seetee’), a new company dedicated to investing in projects and companies throughout the Bitcoin ecosystem.”
In its press release, Aker said that Seetee, which will “keep all its liquid investable assets in bitcoin” and is “initially capitalized with NOK 500 million”, will focos on the following activities:
- “Investing in and owning bitcoin”
- “joining the Bitcoin and broader blockchain community and establishing partnerships with leading players”
- “launching Bitcoin verification operations”
- “building and investing in innovation projects and companies in the Bitcoin and blockchain ecosystem”
Aker says to “accelerate its initiatives”, Seetee will “actively partner with other companies”. One of those strategic partnerships is with Blockstream. This collaboration will “initially focus on mining operations and be further developed by building on Blockstream’s unique strengths in blockchain technology and Aker’s industrial legacy and capability set.”
Øyvind Eriksen, President and CEO of Aker ASA, had this to say:
“With the launch of Settee, the Aker Group makes another move into software and fintech. We are very excited about the industrial opportunities that will be unlocked by Bitcoin and blockchain technology and want to contribute forcefully to that effort. These technologies have the potential to reduce frictions in our day-to-day lives, enhance the security of our digitally-driven economies, and unlock new business models for innovation. We look forward to addressing these and other applications together with Blockstream and other partners.”
