CoinDCX becomes India’s first crypto unicorn, raises $90m led by B Capital

Cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX on August 10 said that it has raised $90 million led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s fund B Capital, valuing it at $1.1 billion.

The deal makes it India’s first crypto unicorn — private startups valued at over a billion dollars —even as the sector faces regulatory uncertainty and a cooled-down market after an investing frenzy in the first five months of 2021.

Existing investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, Jump Capital and others also invested. CoinDCX says it has 3.5 million users currently, and will use the money raised for customer awareness campaigns and increasing its reach.

“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 policy conversations through public discourse, work with the government to introduce favourable regulations, education, and amp up hiring initiatives,” Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO, said.

Besides its main exchange catering to retail investors, CoinDCX also provides trading and lending services for enterprise customers, traders, has a global trading platform and blockchain academy for education.

“India is experiencing a dramatic growth in demand for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, yet only few platforms provide the efficiency, security and compliance that investors have come to expect,” the company said.

Crypto exchanges generally run profitable business models, making it attractive for investors, but CoinDCX did not disclose its revenue or profit numbers.

Both CoinDCX and Block.one, a crypto platform and investor in CoinDCX, are also angel investments of Sanjay Mehta, who now runs 100x VC, a micro venture fund spun off from his family office. He says he introduced the two companies to each other.

"I have seen CoinDCX's growth right from being its seed investor, and helped raise their Series B with Block.one, also my portfolio company. It is great to see how network effects happen when an investor's large portfolio can engage with each other and make the portfolio better," Mehta told Moneycontrol