CoinSwitch turns unicorn after raising $260 million
The deal makes CoinSwitch India’s 2nd cryptocurrency unicorn and 30th unicorn of 2021
MUMBAI: CoinSwitch Kuber on Wednesday said it has raised $260 million (around ₹1,943 crore) in a fundraising round that values it at $1.9 billion.
Existing backers Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and Paradigm invested as well. The deal makes CoinSwitch India’s second cryptocurrency unicorn and 30th unicorn of 2021 in a record year for startup fundraising. Unicorns are private companies valued at a billion dollars or more.
In business parlance, a unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.
CoinSwitch Kuber said it has raised money from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures and existing investors Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global.
‘a16z’ is a venture capital firm known to back bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology while Coinbase is one of the early pioneers of creating a crypto economy and operates one of the largest crypto exchanges, as per the statement.
It can be noted that the Reserve Bank of India has expressed its deep concerns about private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoins multiple times in the past and has conveyed the same to the government. The concerns stem from the high volatility of the instruments, lack of transparency in supply etc.
CoinSwitch said it will utilize the funds to make crypto a household name and is targeting to onboard 50 million Indians on its platform.
The money will also be utilised to hire leaders and experts across engineering, product, data, growth to define the crypto industry in the country, adding new asset classes, onboarding institutional clients, launching an ecosystem fund and on crypto awareness, the statement said.
“CoinSwitch Kuber is on a mission to build wealth for Indians by making crypto more accessible. I believe, simplifying crypto investments for the Indian youth has helped us to stand out,” its co-founder and chief executive Ashish Singhal said, adding that it has reached the unicorn status within 14 months of operations in the country.
With this large capital fusion, CoinSwitch Kuber wants to become the “next biggest fintech player in India” and diversify its product portfolio to include other financial products, besides cryptocurrencies, cofounder and chief executive Ashish Singha
He said Andreessen Horowitz has been behind some of the major startups in the world who have transitioned from being a startup to a company successfully.
“They have lessons on growing the company, growing the culture, hiring the best people, creating a multi-billion-dollar startup company,” he told ET. “Our investors have taken those risks early and have seen this industry grow, and believe in this industry so much. That’s the reason they feel India could be the largest consumer as wel ..
Started in 2017 by Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, and Vimal Sagar, the company was launched as a global aggregator of crypto exchanges. It launched India operations in June 2020 and presently has 10 million users in India, of which 7 million were classified as monthly active.
“We are incredibly excited about the crypto market opportunity in India, and with its breakout growth, Coinswitch has emerged as the leading retail platform in the country,” David George, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said.
This is also the first investment from Andreessen Horowitz in an Indian startup, as ET first reported on September 16. The VC fund has invested from their Growth Fund as well as its $2.2 billion Crypto Fund III which it announced in June this year.
Based out of Menlo Park, Andreessen Horowitz is one of the largest venture funds globally with over $19.2 billion in assets under management across multiple funds. This includes its crypto funds of about $3.1 billion, a $1.4 billion biotech and healthcare fund, and a cultural leadership fund.