Liquid.com, a Japan-based cryptocurrency platform, introduced the profitable closure of its Collection C fundraising spherical, which noticed the corporate obtain a complete valuation of over US$1 billion — making it certainly one of solely two tech unicorns within the nation’s startup business. It took Liquid lower than 5 years to attain this prized $1 billion title. 


Collection C funds shall be used for the needs of worldwide growth and product growth.

Liquid’s Collection C funding spherical was spearheaded by IDG Capital and Bitmain Applied sciences, one of many world’s largest (and most controversial) makers and customers of cryptocurrency mining rigs. The previous firm is already invested in Coinbase, Ripple, Bitmain, and Kakao’s cryptocurrency firm, whereas the latter has not too long ago invested in ErisX, a derivatives-and-crypto asset buying and selling platform with targets to achieve a license from the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee.

tech unicorn

Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu, who not too long ago stepped down as CEO after a dismal yr, said through a press launch:

Japan is without doubt one of the main nations in placing crypto business underneath correct rules, and Liquid Group has confirmed itself to be the exemplary participant inside such compliant guidelines. This can be a crucial and distinctive moat amid international competitors.

Younger Gao, Normal Companion of IDG Capital, likewise said:

IDG has been actively investing within the international crypto area since 2012, figuring out some key gamers early. We got here to understand that Tokyo has emerged as a prime vacation spot for crypto innovation and it’s our honor to again such visionary pioneers as Liquid Co-founders Mike Kayamori and Mario Gomez Lozada to hold out this innovation.

bitmain

IDG Capital and Bitmain Applied sciences should not the one high-profile buyers to pump funds into Liquid. The corporate has already raised greater than US$20 million from JAFCO, SBI, B Sprint Ventures, Mistletoe, and ULS Group, following a greater than US$100m pre-discounted preliminary coin providing fundraising occasion — Japan’s first regulated ICO.

Liquid CEO Mike Karamori was understandably stoked following the profitable fundraising spherical, stating:

As we enter into a brand new age of digital disruption in monetary providers, customers are more and more putting a better worth on digital belongings and applied sciences they will belief and use with higher ease. Our imaginative and prescient is to make monetary providers accessible to all, which implies bringing extra folks into the digital asset area in order that anybody could be part of it. This primary spherical of Collection C funding from our two extremely revered buyers, IDG Capital and Bitmain, places us in an extremely sturdy place to make a worldwide influence in 2019.

What do you consider Liquid’s standing as a tech unicorn after gaining main investments from Bitmain and IDG Capital? Tell us your ideas within the feedback beneath! 


Photographs courtesy of Shutterstock.

The publish Cryptocurrency Startup Turns into Japan’s 2nd Billion-Greenback Tech Unicorn appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.