Koinex, a Mumbai-based multiple cryptocurrency trading platform has raised am undisclosed amount in a new pre-Series A funding round, led by the company’s existing investors — Beenext and Pantera Capital.
With this investment deal, it marks the first investment from cryptocurrency focused-fund Pantera Capital into Indian cryptocurrency platform. The funds will be used to ramp up product development and technology, as well as to expand its team.
Commenting on this, Daniel Morehead, founder and chief executive of Pantera Capital, said:
Pantera Capital is staunchly committed to investing in local cryptocurrency exchanges across the globe because any regional market thrives on local leadership.
Dirk van Quaquebeke, Managing Partner at Beenext Pte. Ltd., said:
Since India is a tremendous market because of its size and large remittance corridor, we believe Koinex is extremely well-positioned to be a pioneering force in the cryptocurrency space in the country.
The startup was founded in August 2017 by IIT graduates Rakesh Yadav and Rahul Raj and BITS Pilani graduate Aditya Naik. It claims to be the India’s first online trading platform that supports real-time multiple cryptocurrencies/tokens on a single platform.
While adoption of cryptocurrencies are at a very nascent stage in India, blockchain, the underlying technology for Bitcoin, is increasingly being adopted among financial institutions. The funding comes at a time when bitcoin recently touched a record high of $17,384.56.