Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber in talks to raise funds at Unicorn valuation – TechCrunch

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Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber is at an advanced stage in talks to raise a new funding round with a valuation of up to $ 2 billion, several sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

If the talks come to fruition with a deal, CoinSwitch Kuber will become the second crypto startup in the world’s second largest internet market to achieve unicorn status.

The four-year-old startup, which counts Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India and Ribbit Capital among its existing investors, was valued at more than $ 500 million in its Series B round of funding in April this year.

We do not know who is positioned to lead the round. The company has engaged closely with Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase in recent weeks, several people familiar with the discussions told TechCrunch.

A deal could be finalized this month, sources said. The size of the deal, according to a source, is over $ 100 million. The usual caveats apply: the terms of the proposed deal may change or the talks may not result in a deal.

The startup declined to comment. Coinbase and A16z, which have yet to back any Indian startups, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India did not respond to a request for comment last week.

The investment talks come at a time when CoinSwitch Kuber has nearly doubled its user base in recent months, even as local authorities push back on crypto assets. Its eponymous app had more than 7 million monthly active users in India last month, up from around 4 million in April this year, according to mobile analytics platform App Annie (of which an industry official has shared data with TechCrunch).

B Capital backed CoinSwitch Kuber’s rival, CoinDCX, last month in a $ 90 million funding round that valued the Indian startup at around $ 1.1 billion. CoinDCX reported 3.5 million users last month.

Indian policymakers have been debating the status of digital currencies in the South Asian market for several years. India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has expressed concerns about private virtual currencies, though it plans to launch test programs for its first digital currency as early as December.

More than two dozen Indian startups have become a unicorn this year, up from 11 last year, as several top investors, including Tiger Global, SoftBank and Falcon Edge, stepped up the pace of their investments in the South market. Asian. TechCrunch reported last week that Tiger Global is signing up with Apna to fund a new round that values ​​the 21-month-old Indian company at over $ 1 billion.

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