Serica YC Application

Summer 2015Inactive

Serica went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2015 batch as a Fintech company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Summer 2015
Industry: FintechBanking and Exchange
Team size: 2
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2015

Founders

Karl Keefer

What Serica does

For the first time in history, Serica enables asset rights to be traded & stored on the Bitcoin blockchain by anyone, anywhere. Serica is a commodities trading platform which connects investors to bitcoin-linked asset rights such as gold, silver, platinum & palladium assets tradeable on multiple digital money & precious metal exchanges. Customers, anywhere in the world, can purchase commodities from Serica's dealer partners. Serica's decentralized custodian service publicly manage assets under custody, allowing safe & low-cost storage of valuable hard assets. Customers leverage DigitalTangible centralized & decentralized trading partner platforms to trade their asset-receipts for bitcoin or other digital money. Precious metal bullion may also be rapidly liquidated for cash or bitcoins.

Serica's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Serica, Summer 2015 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Serica

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Financial payment and loan services for medical cannabis

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built a platform that connects investors with bitcoin-linked asset rights like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Our service allows anyone anywhere to buy commodities from dealer partners, store them securely with a decentralized custodian service on the Bitcoin blockchain, and trade their asset receipts for bitcoin or digital money.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live and operate in San Francisco, CA and plan to remain here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We chose San Francisco because it's a fintech and blockchain hub with access to talent and investors relevant to our market.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Serica YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Serica's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Serica would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.