New Crypto Unicorn is Born in India, Backed by a16z and Coinbase

Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber said it has raised over USD 260m at a valuation of USD 1.9bn.

“A [USD] 1.9 billion crypto dream! We’re officially India’s LARGEST CRYPTO UNICORN,” tweeted CoinSwitch Kuber today, announcing the funding round.

The round was led by US-based venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and major crypto exchange Coinbase‘s venture capital arm. It also included existing investors Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital India, and Tiger Global.

The company was valued at over USD 500m in its Series B financing round in April 2021 that brought it USD 25m in investment.

This is also reported to be a16z’s first investment in India.

Ashish Singhal, Co-founder and Chief Executive of CoinSwitch Kuber, told TechCrunch that the team will use the raised capital to add more asset classes for investment on their app, but not saying which ones. They’re also working to add support for institutional clients to use the app, and are looking to hire more people, including in leadership positions.

According to The Economic Times, citing a company statement in September, CoinSwitch Kuber claimed it became the largest crypto asset platform in India after it has onboarded more than 10m users since starting operations in the country in June 2020. Around 7m of those are active users, it said.

Per blockchain data platform Chainalysis, India is the second of the top three countries in Central and Southern Asia in Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index, behind Vietnam and ahead of Pakistan. However, their report found that India’s crypto market seems more mature than those of the other two countries. It has a large market, as well as a much bigger share of activity happening on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

Furthermore, India is a type of market in which the crypto community has managed to grow and attract outside investment, with Chainalysis saying that they “see more development and usage of innovative projects like DeFi protocols” there.

Meanwhile, some CoinSwitch Kuber users have been complaining about the exchange’s service, claiming that the withdrawal function has been disabled, with the support team assuring them that they are working on improving the service.

https://www.twitter.com/CSKSupport/status/1445684128179961857

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Learn more: 
– DeFi Adoption Driven By Seasoned Traders, Investors From High-Income Countries
– India Will Regulate Crypto as Ban Talk Binned
– Coinbase Announced ‘Business Presence’ in India With New Local Hires