In its first external funding round, New York based crypto finance platform Gemini has announced $400 million in new investment from venture capitalists and other investors.
The growth equity round has been led by Morgan Creek Digital with Marcy Venture Partners, 10T, ParaFi, Newflow Partners also contributing. Also noteworthy is the presence of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia amongst the list of investors.
This comes after CBA CEO Matt Comyn’s recent comments that the biggest risk of cryptocurrencies was ‘missing out’. The Australian bank views the investment as critical in its plans to offer a crypto exchange and custody service in the near term.
Since its launch in 2015 by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Gemini has become a prominent crypto platform, due in part to its focus on regulatory compliance and asset security – a market positioning with obvious appeal to risk averse institutional investors. Based on this investment round, the company is now valued at $7.1 billion.
The capital raise comes in a year of significant growth and product innovation for Gemini. In 2021 the company has:
- Announced the Gemini Credit Card, which the company says has a waitlist of more than 360,000 people.
- Acquired ShardX, a developer of secure multi-party computation (MPC) technology, to enhance its crypto listing and custodial services.
- Launched Gemini Earn that allows users to lend their crypto and earn up to 8.05% APY (check latest rates here).
- Launched Gemini Fund Solutions to provide fund managers with custody, clearing, and trading support for crypto ETFs.
Gemini also stepped up its global expansion in 2021, launching in the UK licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority – and applying for a Monetary Authority of Singapore license as a base to expand further in the Asia Pacific region.
