In Brief:
- Andreessen Horowitz is in talks with CoinSwitch Kuber.
- A16z will be making its first investment in an Indian firm if the deal goes through.
- The deal is likely to be completed soon and could be made official later this month.
One of the world’s most powerful venture funds, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is in advanced talks to invest in Indian cryptocurrency exchange Coinswitch Kuber. This would be its first bet on an Indian internet startup amid a record fundraising boom.
One of the above-mentioned individuals stated “the deal is likely to be completed soon and could be made official later this month.”
a16z is leading a $100-200 million round in Coinswitch Kuber, valuing the company at $2 billion. This agreement further increases four-fold from its previous round of $500 million in April.
According to a previous report, Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital India, and Ribbit Capital, are among Coinswitch’s existing investors, are also positive on the exchange, which just exceeded 10 million customers.
Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, and Vimal Sagar Tiwari founded Coinswitch, a global aggregator of cryptocurrency exchanges, in 2017. In June 2020, it launched Kuber, an India-focused crypto investment platform with 4.5 million users. The company’s annual revenue is roughly $50 million according to CEO Singhal.
Former Netscape pioneer Marc Andreessen and software executive Ben Horowitz created A16z, which has been one of the world’s most aggressive investors in technology in general and cryptocurrency in particular.
This agreement also comes at a time when Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices are all low following a year-long bull run.