Softbank, Pantera lead $3m Series A for Korean bitcoin exchange

BAM Ventures and previous investors Bitcoin Opportunity Corp. and Strong Ventures also took part in the round. Korbit previously raised around $1 million over three in seperate seed rounds, the most recent of which included Silicon Valley-based angel backers Tim Draper, Naval Ravikant and David Lee. 

Set up 2013, Korbit's team includes former employees from a number major firms across the technology and financial sectors, including: IDEO, UBS, Samsung Electronics, Microsoft and the Korea Exchange.

The company claims to have established the world's first bitcoin-Korean won exchange and claims to have amassed 25,000 user accounts, and 400 merchant accounts to date.

SoftBank Ventues, the Seoul-based venture capital unit of SoftBank Corp, was founded in 2000, and operates a $300 million fund. It focus on internet services and platforms, mobile services, digital contents and education. It has invested in around 170 startups to date;previous investments include Alibaba, Nexon and DramaFever.

Pantera Capital is an investment firm founded in 2003 that focuses exclusively on Bitcoin, other digital currencies, and companies in the space.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Financials
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• Early-stage
• South Korea
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• Technology