Bengaluru-based crypto change Unocoin is credited as the primary crypto change in India
Unocoin is near finalising its $5 Mn-worth Sequence A spherical of funding, by which US-based Draper Associates is the lead investor
XBTO Ventures and 2020 Ventures, veteran buyers within the digital asset business have additionally participated within the funding spherical
Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency change Unocoin has raised an undisclosed quantity in funding from US-based enterprise capitalist Tim Draper’s Draper Associates. XBTO Ventures and 2020 Ventures, veteran buyers within the digital asset business have additionally participated within the funding spherical.
Draper Associates’ funding kinds a part of Unocoin’s ongoing Sequence A funding spherical which is near being finalised. The crypto change is anticipated to lift round $5 Mn within the spherical, at a valuation of $20 Mn. So far, Draper Associates is the lead investor within the funding spherical.
The corporate believes that the most recent spherical of funding will assist it bolster its continued progress in India, enable it to construct a stronger expertise staff, and improve its product infrastructure and choices. Services and products within the pipeline for the corporate are its Decentralised Finance (DeFi) providing, and an AI-based chatbot system to enhance buyer help.
Decentralised Finance or DeFi, which envisages the decentralisation of the whole monetary system and its choices — resembling loans and insurance coverage insurance policies — is starting to make waves throughout the Indian crypto ecosystem. Final month, Mumbai-based crypto change WazirX additionally introduced that it might launch a Decentralised Change or DEX, one of many many use instances of DeFi.
In a DEX, in contrast to the normal crypto exchanges, customers aren’t required to make an account and deposit a specific amount of their crypto belongings, or full KYC earlier than making a transaction. DEX allows crypto transactions globally in a matter of seconds, with customers getting into into sensible contracts with different customers for making a transaction.
Talking about his firm’s fundraising, Unocoin CEO Sathvick Vishwanath talked in regards to the rise in crypto buying and selling quantity, after the Supreme Court docket, in March this 12 months, lifted the Reserve Financial institution of India’s (RBI) banking ban on cryptocurrencies. “We’ve seen a dramatic increase of crypto adoption in India following the lifting of an industry-wide ban by RBI, which was enacted in 2018. Customer growth rates have surged by more than 10X in the month the Supreme Court verdict was announced, accompanied by a 5X increase in trading volume in subsequent months,” he stated.
“The funding will help us scale our business further, and give us a strong financial foothold to expand our platform’s offerings. We will double down on our efforts to improve our product features and offerings, which will enhance the overall usability and functionality for our customers.”
Unocoin has beforehand raised greater than $three Mn from a variety of respected buyers, together with Digital Foreign money Group led by Barry Silbert, Enhance.vc led by Adam Draper, and India primarily based VC Blume Ventures.
Based in 2013 by Abhinand Kaseti, Harish BV, Sathvik Vishwanath and Sunny Ray, Unocoin is credited as India’s first crypto change. It claims to be working India’s largest Bitcoin to Indian Rupee buying and selling platform and says that at its peak, it processed transactions value INR 2 Bn per 30 days for its greater than 13 lakh clients.
In 2018, two of Unocoin’s cofounders, Vishwanath and Harish, have been arrested, after the corporate had put in India’s first ATM for cryptocurrencies in a mall in Bengaluru.
The police claimed that the ATM kiosk had been arrange with out prior approvals from the regulating businesses, both RBI or SEBI (Securities and Change Board of India).
Recognized for his profitable early investments in firms resembling Tesla, Skype and Twitter, Tim Draper of Draper Associates stated that his agency had been monitoring Unocoin for lengthy. “We were delighted to hear the verdict by the Indian Supreme Court, and we had been tracking Unocoin, the leader in India for Bitcoin for years,” he stated.
“We are so thrilled that the stars aligned and we could finally back Unocoin. Every Indian should have a Bitcoin account with Unocoin. It is a great way to do business in a currency that doesn’t devalue over time.”
Whereas buying and selling volumes in cryptocurrencies have been on the rise in India since March, speculations about an impending ban on cryptocurrencies proceed to dim the business’s optimism.
Final month, executives from WazirX and neobank Cashaa informed Inc42 that source-based media stories that speculate in regards to the ban on cryptocurrencies in India ought to at all times be taken with a pinch of salt.
WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty stated that Indian crypto stakeholders had been engaged in dialogue with authorities businesses, and have been assured that the federal government wouldn’t take any determination in haste.
