Coinswitch Kuber on Wednesday said it has raised USD 260
million (around ₹1,943 crore) in a fundraising round that values it at USD 1.9
billion. The company becomes the second crypto exchange to achieve the unicorn
status after rival Coindcx, even as deep concerns on the crypto currencies
among the regulators continue.
In business parlance, a unicorn is a privately held startup
company valued at over USD 1 billion. Coinswitch Kuber was founded only
16-months ago by Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni and Vimal Sagar. It is the 30th
company to enter the unicorn club this year and the youngest company ever.
Other young startups to enter the unicorn club include two-year-old Apna and three-year-old
BharatPe that were valued over $1 billion this year. Ecommerce platform for
business Udaan and Ola’s electric vehicles (EV) arm Ola Electric turned
unicorns when they were three year old. Coinswitch Kuber said it has raised
money from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures and existing investors
Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global. 'a16z' is a
venture capital firm known to back bold entrepreneurs building the future
through technology while Coinbase is one of the early pioneers of creating a
crypto economy and operates one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, as per
the statement.
It can be noted that the RBI has expressed its deep concerns
about private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoins multiple times in the past and has
conveyed the same to the government. The concerns stem from the high volatility
of the instruments, lack of transparency in supply etc.
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