Cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, has closed a $90 million (Rs 670 crore) Series C funding round, led by B Capital Group (founded by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin). The round also included participation from returning investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, Jump Capital among others, alongside other veteran investors. The Series C funding round raises CoinDCX’s valuation to $1.1 billion (Rs 8150 crore), making it the first Indian cryptocurrency exchange to reach unicorn status.
The company plans to use the newly injected funds predominantly to further its ambition of ensuring that crypto awareness is spread throughout India. “The funds raised will be allocated to expand (bring more Indians to crypto / make crypto a popular investment asset class in India) and strengthen our workforce that will cater to our growth story. We will hire talent across multiple functions and focus on new business initiatives,” said Sumit Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, CoinDCX.
“Apart from this, we will be joining hands or enter into partnerships with key fintech players to expand crypto investor base; set up a Research & Development (R&D) facility; strengthen the policy conversations; through public discourse, work with the government to introduce favourable regulations, and amp up the hiring initiatives,” he added.
India is experiencing a dramatic growth in demand for cryptocurrencies and digital assets. “With the support of the largest institutional backers in both the traditional and digital asset spaces, we will double down on our efforts to build the next generation of products with cutting edge innovation, improve our existing product array, and strengthen our exchange infrastructure and product team in order to provide the most more secure trading experience with instant liquidity to our users,” the company said in a statement.
Founded in 2018, CoinDCX said it has already onboarded more than 3.5 million users. It now wants to make crypto accessible in India and will accelerate its efforts towards bringing 50 million Indians into crypto. With the growing positive sentiments in the crypto space this year, CoinDCX said it will continue to scale its dedicated products on the investments and trading side.