India has become a "Citronella", and CoinDCX exchange has received $ 3 million in Series A financing such as BitMEX

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has raised $ 3 million in Series A funding.

This round of financing was led by BitMEX operator HDR Group, Polychain Capital and Bain Capital Ventures. Other undisclosed venture capitalists also participated in this round of financing.

With the new funding in place, CoinDCX plans to expand its products and services and hire more staff. CoinDCX co-founder and CEO Sumit Gupta said:

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"As the cryptocurrency sector in India develops at an alarming rate, we plan to build a new fiat currency access solution, algorithm-based transactions, cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency transactions, and introduce new trading pairs."

To that end, Gupta said the exchange also hopes to double its existing 50 employees in functions such as technology, growth, marketing and customer support "in the next six months."

The financing comes a few weeks after the Supreme Court of India lifted the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India's banking ban on the cryptocurrency industry in 2018.

BitMEX and HDR Group co-founder and CEO Arthur Hayes said,

"The latest developments in the field of cryptocurrency regulation in India are encouraging and have the potential to accelerate adoption and innovation in this area. We are pleased to be an investor in CoinDCX and believe that their talented team and technology will make them the main players in the region Cryptocurrency venue. "

Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder of Polychain Capital, agrees, saying the Supreme Court ruling "is an encouraging sign of India's broader cryptocurrency ecosystem, and we believe the market has huge potential growth."

Crypto users in India show exponential growth

Founded in 2018, Mumbai-based CoinDCX claims that the number of users has grown "exponentially" since the bank ban was lifted. "We used to have more than 35,000 users. Now that number has increased tenfold."

Gupta added that the exchange's top five markets are Surat, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi.

Gupta declined to disclose the increase in transaction volume, but said that the average daily transaction volume after the ban is about $ 10-15 million.

The company's founder and CEO, Nischal Shetty, told The Block that by comparison, its rival WazirX (which has Binance's support) averaged $ 2 to $ 3 million in transactions.

$ 5 trillion economy?

Looking ahead, CoinDCX wants to further expand its users through the "TryCrypto" program and increase the total number of crypto users in India from the current 5 million to 50 million. Earlier this month, CoinDCX launched a plan to commit $ 1.3 million to building public awareness of cryptocurrencies in India and promoting the adoption of cryptocurrencies.

As a result of this effort, CoinDCX also plans to contribute to India's development by 2025, making it a $ 5 trillion economy. Gupta told The Block:

"To achieve this, India ’s minimum annual growth rate will need to exceed 10.8% per year. India ’s current GDP growth rate has fallen sharply from 8% last year to 5% in the second quarter of 2019. It is clear that our economy needs Strong growth momentum is needed to achieve the goal of becoming a $ 5 trillion economy. I believe India has the opportunity to achieve this by embracing the next wave of cryptocurrency penetration. "

He added:

"Our Series A financing demonstrates how cryptocurrencies can increase foreign investment in the Indian economy and highlights the potential that global players see in the Indian cryptocurrency space."

CoinDCX is also open to raising more funds in the near future. "We see investment as a strategic tool that can help us develop better products for the future. So if we are really interested in strategic partnerships, we will be happy to explore these opportunities," Gupta told The Block.

So far, it is unclear how much CoinDCX has raised in total. Gupta declined to comment, and declined to comment on the exchange's valuation. In March 2019, CoinDCX raised undisclosed seed funding, also led by Bain Capital Ventures.

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