The Mexican exchange Bitso announced that it has received a $62 million investment from venture capital companies Kaszek Ventures and QED Investors, and current shareholders Coinbase Ventures and Pantera Capital.
Estamos muy emocionados de anunciar que por 1era vez dos de los fondos de capital más importantes del mundo, @QEDInvestors & @KaszekVentures han decidido apostar e invertir en cripto, mostrando el gran potencial e impacto de esta tecnología en la vida de las personas. https://t.co/CcU0ggSy7s
— Bitso (@Bitso) December 9, 2020
Kaszek Ventures and QED Investors are two large fintech equity funds that, for the first time in their history, are deciding to invest in the crypto sector.
The investment is the largest ever in Latin America for a company that focuses on digital assets.
Bitso now has over one million users, with a 97% share of the crypto market in Mexico and 77% in Argentina, according to the company’s CEO, Daniel Vogel.
Bitso exchange to conquer Latin America
Latin America is also an area where interest in cryptocurrencies is growing, partly because of the high inflation that plagues several local currencies.
Moreover, the exchange, in part thanks to a partnership with Ripple, is expanding in the remittances market, where cryptocurrencies have already gained a share of $36 billion a year in the US-Mexico market.
Daniel Vogel said:
“We have been talking to QED and Kaszek for a really long time and they have been interested in crypto but hadn’t pulled the trigger until now. I think the conviction from them is because we are really focused on making this technology accessible to the people of Latin America.
In the case of the U.S.-Mexico remittances, Bitso has processed over a billion dollars worth. That’s exciting because it’s the technology being put to use for the benefit of the consumers, more than just speculation”.
Bitso raised 15 million dollars back in October 2019, and now has around 200 employees. Thanks to the latest funding, it will also open an office in Brazil.
According to Vogel, Brazil is an interesting place for the development of cryptocurrency-based financial products, which is why Bitso will be very active in this market.
In addition, the CEO says the aim of the exchange is to provide access to financial products in a similar way to banks, as the level of access to traditional financial services is very low in the region.
In fact, Kaszek Ventures’ co-founder and managing partner, Nicolas Szekasy, said:
“Crypto has more opportunity in regions like Latin America than the U.S. where the banking infrastructure is more sophisticated. We’ve been looking into the space for years and we have strong conviction that Bitso is the way to go”.
Kaszek Ventures is also headquartered in Brazil.
Co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, Nigel Morris, added:
“QED has long kept a pulse on the crypto market and Bitso in particular. The power crypto has to disrupt and innovate traditional financial services is inexorable and we look forward to using our operating knowledge and expertise to help Bitso achieve exactly that”.
