Unocoin, the Bangalore bitcoin exchange, closed a $1.5 million Pre-Series A round led by Blume Ventures. Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, Bitcoin Capital, FundersClub, Mumbai Ange
Unocoin, the Bangalore bitcoin exchange, closed a $1.5 million Pre-Series A round led by Blume Ventures. Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, Bitcoin Capital, FundersClub, Mumbai Angels, and ah! Ventures joined the round. The round represents the largest funding haul for a bitcoin startup in India.
The capital gives Unocoin room to expand its foothold as the country's dominant crypto exchange. "These are exciting times," Sathvik Vishwanath, Unocoin's co-founder and CEO, said. "Given our steep growth rate, we're looking to serve millions more in the coming years."
Vishwanath pointed to India's markets as the core opportunity. The country leads in gold trade, inbound money transfers, and IT services. "India has the largest gold, inward remittance, and IT markets in the world, all of which make it a perfect home for Bitcoin and blockchain technology," he said. He added that the moment felt pivotal. "We're at the dawn of a new evolution where money itself is being reinvented."
Barry Silbert, who founded and runs Digital Currency Group, called Unocoin one of his portfolio's fastest risers. DCG, based in New York, backs over 80 Bitcoin and blockchain ventures across 25 countries.
Karthik Reddy, managing partner at Blume Ventures, said Unocoin won backing through its push to educate the market and its work to strip away friction from payments and commerce. "We are confident that Unocoin will further alter the landscape and make additional inroads into remittances and e-commerce in India," Reddy said.
Simon Dixon runs Bank to the Future and manages Bitcoin Capital. He focused on India's vast population without access to traditional banking. "We believe Bitcoin has a role to play in India in the long term and are happy to join the round of the leading bitcoin company in India," Dixon said.
Unocoin started in 2013. The platform now serves over 100,000 users worldwide, moving more than 200 million rupees, or about $3 million, in transactions each month.
"When we got started four years ago, we saw a once in a lifetime opportunity to build out a secure platform for people to easily access bitcoin," said Sunny Ray, Unocoin's co-founder and president. "We knew that Bitcoin was going to be a big deal. Bitcoin opens up a world that simply wasn't possible before."
Ray outlined the company's larger vision: "We started this company with the mission to bring bitcoin to billions. In the future, we believe that bitcoin has the potential to take market share from gold, substantially reduce the cost of remittance and potentially bank the unbanked."
Over the past year, Unocoin built several new tools. A merchant point-of-sale app lets businesses accept bitcoin. A mobile trading app lets users trade on phones. An auto-selling feature serves people sending money overseas. The Bitcoin Systematic Investment Plan lets users buy regularly despite price swings. An over-the-counter desk handles large trades. An API opens the platform to developers. The company also integrated with NETKI to simplify bitcoin addresses and with purse.io to offer users Amazon discounts.
Unocoin plans to roll out additional features in the coming months.
