Singapore-based digital asset exchange Zipmex, which offers a trading platform for retail and institutional investors, has raised USD 41 million in a Series B investment round led by Krungsri Finnovate, the venture capital unit of Bank of Ayudhya.
The news comes shortly after two media giants listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Plan B Media and Master Ad, announced their THB 300 million (USD 9 million) investment in Zipmex in mid-August, making it a part of the company’s ongoing Series B investment round. In January, the firm bagged USD 6 million from Jump Capital.
“This commitment from Krungsri Finnovate is a huge step forward for us. It represents not only the validation of our business model and approach to innovation, but also of the potential for digital assets to become a core part of our lifestyle,” said Zipmex CEO, Marcus Lim, in a public statement. He added that a marriage of digital assets and traditional banking will provide new innovative use cases for money.
The startup will utilize the fresh capital to deepen its presence in existing markets. Currently, Zipmex is licensed to run an exchange in Thailand. It also operates in Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia according to local regulations.
In its two years of operation, Zipmex has processed over USD 4 billion in gross transaction volume. As of the first half of 2021, the company logged over THB 62 billion (USD 1.85 billion) in trading volume.
While most of the trading came from Thailand, the transaction volume, which Zipmex expects will rise by 310% by the end of this year, has edged close to Thailand’s total crypto trading volume of USD 2.5 billion recorded in 2020.
Earlier this month, Zipmex announced a partnership with Visa to launch a payment card for Zipmex users to spend their digital assets at over 70 million merchants in Visa’s payment network.
As crypto becomes a mainstream asset in Southeast Asia, major financial institutions are joining the action. DBS, the region’s largest bank, received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the Payment Services Act to provide digital payment token services. As of June, it has amassed 400 investors, registering over SGD 130 million in digital assets.
An array of crypto exchanges have also sprung up to meet the rising demand in Asia, these include Thailand-based Bitkub, UK-headquartered Luno that was reportedly in talks with Lipp Group to form a joint venture in Indonesia in June, as well as Indonesia-based Indodax and Tokocrypto, which is mulling an IPO over the “next two to three years,” according to multiple media reports.
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