Tim Draper Leads Targeted $5M Series A for India Crypto Exchange Unocoin

Oct 8, 2020 at 08:49 UTCUpdated Oct 8, 2020 at 08:51 UTC.Noted bitcoin investor Tim Draper is backing a planned $5 million Series A funding round for Bangalore-based cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin.

Announcing the news Thursday, the exchange said Draper Associates is currently lead investor with an undisclosed contribution, while XBTO Ventures and 2020 Ventures are also joining the round.

If the full $5 million target is achieved the trading platform says its valuation would rise to to US$20 million.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Unocoin CEO Sathvik Vishwanath said that so far $3.5 million has been raised.

The investment will help the exchange grow within India and enable it to further develop its tech team and product offerings.

Among the latter is a plan to offer services around decentralized finance, or DeFi, for which Unocoin would launch its own protocols.

Since India's Supreme court overturned a ban on providing banking services to the cryptocurrency industry, customer numbers surged 10 times in the first month, Vishwanath said, while trading volumes subsequently rose 5 times.

Unocoin has previously raised $3 million from investors including Boost VC, CoinDesk parent firm Digital Currency Group and India-based Blume Ventures.