After quitting Meta’s Diem several months ago, David Marcus has not set his eyes on a Bitcoin-related project.
David Marcus has declared the launch of a new company called Lightspark, which strives to expand on the utility and abilities of Bitcoin. This arrives months after he left Meta’s cryptocurrency attempt – Diem – where he spearheaded the task.
Marcus declared the news in a tweet thread on Thursday (May 12, 2022), saying that the first step will be to assemble a team that would further explore the Lightning Network.
The ex-Meta executive stated:
“Downturns are good points to concentrate on building and creating value with mission-aligned people. We’re eager to dive into Lightning, learn more, and work alongside the community. We’ll share more about our work as we make improvements!”
While there is no full information about the new startup, Lightspark’s first round is shown by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Paradigm. Other investors participating in the event contain Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, Zeev Ventures, and Felix Capital, among others.
According to a report Marcus will serve as the company’s CEO, with some ex-Meta crypto members occupying executive positions.
Marcus was one of the co-founders of the Meta’s Diem project (formerly Libra) and was in control of the Calibra digital wallet. He earlier served as PayPal’s president and was also in charge of Facebook Messenger.
In November 2021, Marcus declared that he would quit Meta, after spending seven years at the company. Soon after, the company disbanded the Diem initiative, which is now trying to get revived with another team under a new name – Aptos.