Luno Raises $9 Million in Series B Funding Round
Singapore-based bitcoin wallet start-up Luno, formerly called BitX, has raised $9 million in a Series B funding round.
The funding was led by London-based VC firm Balderton Capital. As part of the deal, Balderton partner Tim Bunting will join Luno’s board. The round also includes funds from AlphaCode, the FinTech investment arm of Rand Merchant Investment Holdings. Existing investors like Digital Currency Group, Naspers, and Venturra Capital also participated in the round.
Luno said that the funding will be used for product development, including the introduction of a number of new features. The company will also look at doubling the existing team of 70 in hiring across all units, from engineering and product to business development, customer support, and compliance across all three company hubs starting with the Luno HQ in London, and offices in Singapore and Cape Town.
“We’ve known the Balderton team for many years and we’ve been impressed with their wealth of experience in helping global businesses scale and achieve success; their experience and networks, our shared vision for the industry, and a strong alignment of values make them fantastic partners for the next stage of our journey,” said Luno CEO and co-founder Marcus Swanepoel. “We’ve also known RMI for many years and given their extensive experience in the financial services sector and working closely with management teams to build a number of industry-defining companies, we’re also very excited to have them on board.”
Luno is also set to expand into continental Europe, in addition to consolidating and growing their market share in Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia.
“From our early roots of being the first company in the world to build a fully-integrated bitcoin pilot system for a major bank, over the subsequent few years launching consumer wallets, exchanges, and merchant services to become the market leader in Southeast Asia and Africa, starting to build our UK presence in 2016 and now finally launching across the wider Europe: we are now one giant leap closer to our goal of bringing digital currency to everyone, everywhere,” said Swanepoel.
