CoinSwitch Kuber turns unicorn with $260 Mn round led by a16z and Coinbase

CoinSwitch Kuber, India’s crypto asset platform, has closed a $260 million Series C funding round from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures and existing investors Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global. 

This is a16z’s first investment in an Indian startup.

The investment makes CoinSwitch Kuber a unicorn and the most valuable crypto company in India with a valuation of $1.9 billion. In April, Tiger Global had led a $25 million Series B round in the company at an undisclosed valuation.

The newly acquired funds will majorly be used to build up new asset classes, hiring leadership functions and onboard 50 million users, said CoinSwitch in a press statement.  

Started in 2017 by Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, and Vimal Sagar, CoinSwitch was launched as a global aggregator of crypto exchanges. The company launched its India operations in June 2020. Its early backers include Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global along with notable angel investors like Kunal Shah.

The company claims to have more than 10 million users in India with a monthly active user base of over seven million.

CoinSwitch Kuber is the 30th startup to achieve unicorn status in 2021 so far. On Tuesday, fresh meat and seafood brand Licious became a unicorn. 

Last month, edtech company Vedantu, professional networking platform for blue and grey collar workers, Apna and e-sports platform Mobile Premier League had joined the club after the likes of Zetwerk, Grofers, Eruditus, CoinDCX, upGrad, MindTickle and BharatPe among others.

In August, cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX became the first unicorn in this space after a $90 million Series C round.