Zipmex, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, has completed a US$41 million Series B funding round as it innovates toward a “full 360 digital banking offering,” the company said during a media briefing today.
Fast facts
- Investors in Zipmex’s Series B funding round indicate increasing institutional buy-in to the digital assets industry. The investors include Krungsri Finnovate, the venture capital arm of the Bank of Ayudhya, Thailand’s fifth-largest bank by assets and a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), as well as Thai-listed multimedia companies Plan B Media and Master Ad (MACO). Jump Capital, which led Zipmex’s Series A round in January, and Hong Kong-based MindWorks Capital also participated. Zipmex declined to disclose the company’s exact valuation, but indicated it was “set to reach one billion dollars in the months to come.”
- Sam Tanskul, managing director at Krungsri Finnovate, said in a statement: “Krungsri Finnovate places great importance on technology and financial innovation in every way. We believe that tech and innovation will be the driver of economical and society-focused solutions to the country’s future … Krungsri believes that this is an important opportunity for the bank to dive into the digital assets industry and build a strong ecosystem that would provide solutions to our customers’ changing needs. Furthermore, since we are part of MUFG, a world class financial institution with presence in over 50 countries, we are able to provide Zipmex with all the synergies it may need to tap into in Asia and the rest of the world.”
- The company intends to use the fresh capital to grow its team, with a focus on risk and compliance, as well as diversify its product offerings as it looks to further expand across its key markets of Thailand and Indonesia. Zipmex, which started as a cryptocurrency exchange, has since launched “ZipUp,” an interest-bearing account that allows customers to earn interest on digital assets, and is moving into payments and lending. Earlier this month, the exchange said its payment network ZipSend would be integrated into payment services giant Visa’s global merchant network.
- Zipmex also said it would launch its non-fungible token (NFT) platform in the fourth quarter of 2021, joining the growing number of cryptocurrency exchanges to do so. “A marriage of digital assets and traditional banking can provide new innovative use cases for money, which we have demonstrated through ZipWorld,” said Marcus Lim, Zipmex’s CEO, in a statement. “Further use cases of Zlaunch, and ZipNFT are just the starting point of where we can evolve to be banking forward, lifestyle focused.”
- Proud Limpongpan, Zipmex’s chief marketing officer, said at a media briefing that the exchange currently had US$360 million in assets under management (AUM) and expects its AUM to increase to over US$8 billion by the end of 2023. The company projects its cumulative trade volume to reach US$10 billion by end-2021 and predicts “exponential client growth within the next two years.”
- Zipmex operates in Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. It is licensed in Thailand and operates under regulatory supervision in Indonesia and Australia. In Singapore, Zipmex — through its subsidiary, Zipmex Pte. Ltd. — is currently operating under a regulatory exemption, and is in an advanced stage of applying for a Major Payment Institution license to provide digital payment token services, the company said. “We’re in a very good position to getting the in-principal approval,” Lim said. “We started this business with [regulation] in mind in the beginning, which is to play by the rules to be regulated and licensed, because I think that’s the most important thing.”