New Delhi: Fiat-to-crypto payment gateway Transak said it that has raised ₹4.8 crore in a seed round led by Consensys, The Lao, IOSG, Lunex, Koji Capital and other angel investors.
Transak streamlines the process of buying and selling cryptocurrency allowing both mainstream users and businesses to access crypto and blockchain. The company is looking to expand its operations, partnerships and work base in India and is going to use the amount raised to hire more engineers and expand its team in the country, it said in a statement.
“The Indian blockchain market is growing rapidly and needs on and off-ramps to make the crypto world accessible to all. The company is excited to acquire fresh Indian talent which is known to be exceptional across the globe and are dedicated to building a strong team in the country to take over the Indian operations. We are highly motivated to ease the friction in the global crypto market and take decentralized finance mainstream,” said Sami Start & Yeshu Agarwal, Co-Founders, Transak.
Serial entrepreneurs Sami and Yeshu founded Transak with a vision to address the clear need-gap in the market for end-users who wanted to buy crypto directly to their wallet, in order to use blockchain applications. Transak has operations in 60+ countries and plans to expand and consolidate this coverage by the end of 2021. Currently, the company is working closely with other players in the Indian blockchain ecosystem, including WazirX and Matic Network. Globally Transak is integrated by top wallets and apps.
Whilst traditional crypto exchanges allow users to trade and speculate on crypto, Transak allows users to access cryptocurrency from fiat in order to actually use blockchain applications, decentralised finance (DeFi), payments and many more applications. Whilst these applications are still in their infancy, they are expected to be used throughout India and across the world within the next 5 years.
Transak said that it experienced rapid growth in volumes in 2020 and this year plans to expand to more fiat payment methods, integrate with more blockchains and protocols, as well as explore new markets, with a keen focus on India.