Tiger Global invests $25m in India crypto app
Tiger Global Management has invested $25 million in CoinSwitch Kuber, a cryptocurrency exchange for the Indian retail market that facilitates investments as small as INR100 ($1.33).
The investment, billed as a Series B round, values the company at about $500 million and establishes CoinSwitch as the best-funded crypto platform in the country, according to a statement. It comes only three months after a $15 million Series A from Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, and Paradigm, a sector specialist in the US.
The Indian government is expected to consider a ban in the near term on all cryptocurrencies – except those mooted by the central bank – although a draft bill has yet to be formally submitted. Last month, the Supreme Court rejected a previous ban, calling it “unconstitutional.”
If the new proposal passes into law, it could make India the first major economy to illegalize any kind of crypto ownership. China, for example, has illegalized mining, trading, and token-based fundraisings, known as ICOs, but it has placed no penalties on crypto possession.
CoinSwitch was set up last year by a team of former employees of Amazon, Microsoft, and Accenture with a view to democratizing virtual currencies as an asset class. Much of the offering focuses on optimizing accessibility through simplified platform design and education. The company’s mission statement declares “crypto investing should be as easy as ordering food online.”
Co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal claims that CoinSwitch has grown 350% in the past quarter to become the largest crypto trading platform in India and one of the country’s top five financial apps. The user base has grown from about 100 000 after the initial launch to one million at the time of the Series A, and more than 4.5 million currently. The target is 10 million by the end of the year.
Growth will be supported by a recently launched publicity campaign targeting a young, tech-savvy audience. This effort also includes a partnership with the Disney+Hotstar T20 Series, a live-streaming cricket event. There are also plans to develop new features that help inexperienced investors mitigate risk and integration an education serviced called Kuberverse into the core app.
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