Asia crypto asset management platform raises $40m

"As blockchain technology and innovation advances, we are observing a wave of increasing institutional demand,” said Jasmine Zhang, a partner at A&T Capital, which recently reached a first close on a blockchain fund targeting $100 million. “Cobo's custody and asset management solution provide a great product-market fit.”

Cobo is developing what it calls a defi-as-a-service infrastructure, which allows customers to access decentralized finance protocols via a user-friendly interface. The idea is to facilitate custody, wallet, staking, and trading services for cryptocurrencies in a way that does not require users to be familiar with technical aspects of smart contracts.

According to a statement, Cobo serves more than 300 institutions and covers more than 85% of Asia’s second-tier crypto exchanges, with cumulative transaction volume amounting to $20 billion. The company, which is currently pursuing various regulatory licenses, recently relocated from Beijing to Singapore to attract more talent and regional clients. There are also offices in Hong Kong and Seattle.

Cobo was founded by Changhao Jiang, a former platform engineer at Facebook and Google, and Discus Fish, who also co-founded F2Pool, China’s first crypto mining pool. It raised a $13 million Series A in 2018 led by Digital Horizon Capital and Wu Capital, a Chinese family office. IMO, Linear Capital, and FreesFund provided a seed round of undisclosed size earlier that year, according to AVCJ Research.

“With interest in the crypto revolution soaring across Asia, it’s high time to expand blockchain infrastructures to meet the rising demand, especially as we’re seeing growing enthusiasm among institutions. In the past, we’d witnessed crypto applications evolve from Bitcoin to defi and now NFTs [non-fungible tokens],” Fish said.

“In due time, I even foresee metaverses will be next to be developed on the blockchain. So, looking ahead, we have the foundational infrastructure in place that will enable us to serve 1,000 institutional investors to cement our position as Asia Pacific’s largest crypto custody and asset management services provider.”

Accelerating mainstream uptake of blockchain-based financial services is translating into an investment boom. Global VC investment in blockchain companies averaged $1.1 billion per quarter throughout 2019 and 2020 before spiking to $6.5 billion and $5.4 billion in the first and second quarters of 2021, according to GlobalData.

Defi and NFTs represent the latest sub-categories to stir up business-building activity and investor interest. The former involves the use of smart contracts to facilitate crypto trading and lending without the need for intermediaries such as a traditional exchange. The latter represents an expansion of the concept of digital asset ownership from uniform units to individually distinct and copyrightable items.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Singapore
• DST Advisors
• Cryptocurrency
• blockchain
• Financial Services
• Fintech