Coinbase, one of the biggest Bitcoin consumer wallets and merchant processing platforms in the world,just acquired Kippt, a two-person YC-backed startup that had been working on a platform to share and store content.

Both companies, which came out of Y Combinator, had been collaborating informally for a long time. On the side, Kippt’s main designer Karri Saarinen had been doing a lot of work on Coinbase’s branding and visual look. Kippt’s other co-founder Jori Lallo also had worked on a Coinbase app gallery as the company builds out a Bitcoin-centric app platform with hundreds of developers.

This deal, done with a combination of cash and stock, is clearly one for talent. It shows that while many Y Combinator companies understandably don’t pan out, founders and engineers who go through the program have many soft landing opportunities elsewhere. Kippt is Coinbase’s first acquisitionafter raising more than $30 million in venture funding from firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures.

Kipptoriginally was a consumer tool where users could intelligently bookmark and share links, andthen they pivoted toward being more of an enterprise-centric tool called Inc that was comparable to Yammer or Convo. It ended up being used by companies like Teehan+Lax, Betaworks and Swiggle.

“Although our service has been loved by many, we never achieved the growth and the scale that would allow a sustainable future for Kippt,” Lallo and Saarinen wrote in a blog post. “Building personal knowledge online continues to be a challenging and ambitious problem.”

The pair said they’ll keep the free versions of Kippt and Inc running as a side project, but the pro versions will get discontinued.

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• Coinbase

  • Founded2012
  • OverviewCoinbase is an online platform that allows merchants, consumers, and traders to transact with digital currency. It allows its users to create their own bitcoin wallets and start buying or selling bitcoins by connecting with their bank accounts. In addition, it provides a series of merchant payment processing systems and tools that support many highly-trafficked websites on the internet. Coinbase was …
  • LocationSan Francisco, CA
  • CategoriesBitcoin,E-Commerce,Personal Finance,FinTech
  • FoundersBrian Armstrong,Maia Cybelle Carpenter
  • Websitehttps://www.coinbase.com
  • Full profile for Coinbase

• Kippt

  • Founded2012
  • OverviewKippt is a collaborative bookmarking system for professional networks that lets employees teach and share with each other on a dedicated platform.When you collect something to Kippt, the page and the content will be searchable, organizable, readable on your devices and easily shared with other people.
  • LocationSan Francisco, CA
  • CategoriesSocial Media,Information Technology,Social Bookmarking
  • FoundersJori Lallo
  • Websitehttp://kippt.com
  • Full profile for Kippt