Cryptocurrency company Anchorage has raised $350 million in a Series D funding round at a new valuation of $3 billion. The funding round saw the participation of prolific investors such as Goldman Sachs, Alameda Research, Andreessen Horowitz, Apollo credit funds, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Blockchain Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, Elad Gil, GIC, GoldenTree Asset Management, Innovius Capital, Kraken, Lux Capital, PayPal Ventures, Senator Investment Group, Standard Investments, Thoma Bravo and Wellington Management, and was led by KKR. The new funding round follows shortly after Anchorage raised $80 million in a Series C round.
Anchorage which enables trading of crypto assets, earning returns on staking assets, etc., offers custody solutions for institutions such as publicly traded companies or funds. Anchorage handled the transaction that saw Visa acquire CryptoPunk for 49.5 ETH, back in August.
Anchorage’s latest funding round drew in a number of big investors and this may leave one wondering why. Anchorage received a federal banking charter which makes it a digital asset bank and separates it from other available custodian products.
Anchorage plans on using the newly-raised funds to scale its operations as well as improve its products so that they can be relevant for financial firms and other fintech companies around the world. The company also plans on launching more features with more integrations with DeFi products.
The company claims to have increased its number of clients by 96 percent in the past year. It also revealed that its headcount increased by 175 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.
Anchorage, with its federal banking charter, has an edge over other companies in its line of business. As crypto adoption continues to increase, companies will be out to find partners that will be trustworthy and Anchorage will be one of the top companies on the list.
KKR’s Technology Growth Equity senior leader Ben Pederson while speaking about the investment said in a statement that “As a pioneer in enabling institutional investors to access digital assets, Anchorage has built a best in class, institutional-grade digital asset platform that combines the best practices of both modern security and usability. We are thrilled to lead this Series D round and work with Diogo, Nathan and their talented team as they continue to support the institutional adoption of digital assets through their differentiated, regulated and integrated suite of solutions”.
