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Cryptocurrency Startup CoinSwitch Kuber turns unicorn with Andreessen Horowitz's first India bet

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A cryptocurrency platform for retail traders, CoinSwitch Kuber, has raised $260 million in the funding round co-led by Silicon valley-based venture fund Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures.

Coinbase Ventures has invested $150 million whereas Andreessen Horowitz has contributed $80 million. Existing investors like Ribbit capital, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global also participated in the funding round.

With this large capital fusion, Coinswitch Kuber wants to become the “next biggest fintech player in India” and diversify its product portfolio to include other financial products, besides cryptocurrencies, cofounder and chief executive Ashish Singhal said.

He said Andreessen Horowitz has been behind some of the major startups in the world who have transitioned from being a startup to a company successfully.

“They have lessons on growing the company, growing the culture, hiring the best people, creating a multi-billion-dollar startup company, he said. “Our investors have taken those risks early and have seen this industry grow, and believe in this industry so much. That’s the reason they feel India could be the largest consumer as well as producer of new blockchain products, and they don’t want to miss out on this opportunity.”

Singhal, Govind Soni and Vimal Sagar Tiwari founded Coinswicth Kuber in 2017. The company launched Coinswicth Kuber, its India-exclusive crypto platform in June 2020.

The company has 7 million active users all over India and has breached the 11 million registered user mark.

“We have to focus on the entire India, especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities. Creating education and amazing products, launching new asset classes, not just be a crypto platform but be a financial wellbeing platform for Indians. I think through education and tier two and tier three penetration, we should be able to achieve this,” Singhal said. “We don’t want to restrict ourselves to just crypto, we want to create a financial product. Be the solution for financial well being for the masses in India and that’s where we want to combine crypto with other asset classes, helping users with the opportunity across the board, not just in crypto.”