New Zealand’s Easy Crypto secures $11.75M
Easy Crypto, New Zealand’s cryptocurrency exchange firm, has recently secured funding of $11.75 million (estimating to be 17 million New Zealand dollars) in Series A round with Easy Crypto fixated at a potential initial public offering (IPO) in the near future.
According to the official announcement by Easy Crypto, the round was led by Nuance Connected Capital, a venture capital fund. The firm also said on October 6 that the 17 million figure has “set a new record in New Zealand” for the biggest Series A funding from a local firm.
The current funding marks a significant milestone for Easy Crypto, said its co-founder and CEO, Janine Grainger, stressing that it has been “difficult” to garner investment as a company working in the “fringe” crypto sector during its early stages.
The CEO has further said that funding received by the company would be utilized in accelerating growth via talent management, products development, tech development, and expansion of new markets in Indonesia and the Philippines.
According to reports, the round was oversubscribed by 50 per cent, including participation from a string of local and international companies, including Pathfinder, KiwiSaver provider, Even Capital, Icehouse Ventures, GDP Venture (Indonesia), Seven Peaks Ventures (US) and Hutt Capital (US).
Easy Crypto was founded by siblings Janine and Alan Grainger, back in 2017. So far, the firm has generated $760 million (approximately 1.1 billion NZD) worth of sales to date, having a customer base of over 150,000 across New Zealand, Brazil, Australia and South Africa. The platform also hosts buying and selling services for a total of 151 digital assets and sells hardware wallets from Trezor and Ledger.
Janine Grainger had spoken to the New Zealand Herald on October 6, sharing that the firm is planning to use funds for ramping up its overseas operations as well as targeting new markets in South East Asia. Grainger also said that they are looking at a potential IPO.
While sharing the firm’s journey till now, Grainger told New Zealand Herald that the firm’s success roadmap has been tough, as it took them 13 months to get their first dollar of investment before being able to raise $11.75 million within just three weeks of 2021.
According to the CEO, Easy Crypto has managed to generate $3.46 million (estimated to be 5 million NZD) worth of revenue in the 2020 financial year and is currently planning to double the amount this year.
The firm also informed that its customer base has grown in the past 12 months by “almost five times.”
Within the crypto industry of New Zealand, there has been somewhat a pall cast owing to the defunct crypto exchange Cryptopia that became the victim of a major hack in 2019 where roughly $16 million–$18 million worth of crypto was swiped from the platform.
Further, Cointelegraph had reported in July that a former Cryptopia employee had been found guilty of the theft of around $172,000 in crypto, which he had obtained by making a copy of users’ private keys while working there.
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