Ex-Meta Executive Launches New Bitcoin Payments Startup

David Marcus, the former head of Meta’s crypto and digital finance operations, has unveiled his new entrepreneurial foray into the Bitcoin ecosystem. David Marcus Launches Lightspark In a Twitter thread, Marcus announced that he is starting a new company called Lightspark, a crypto payments system designed to make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper. Marcus raised roughly $175 million in venture capital funding for the new company, according to Bloomberg. VC firms Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm are co-leading the round with participation from Thrive Capital, Coatue, Felix Capital, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners and Zeev Ventures. “I wanted to share that we are starting a new company called Lightspark to explore, build and extend the capabilities and utility of Bitcoin. As a first step, we’re actively assembling a team to dive deeper into the Lightning Network,” said Marcus in a tweet. Downturns are good moments to focus on building and creating value with mission-aligned people. We’re excited to dive into Lightning, learn more, and work alongside the community. We’ll share more about our work as we make progress! (3/3) — David Marcus (@davidmarcus) May 12, 2022 Other Ex-Meta Employees Also Part of the Team In addition to Marcus, other members of the team include James Everingham, who was previously a vice president of engineering at Facebook’s Novi. Christian Catalini, who built Diem with Marcus, will be charged with le...