Mobile cryptocurrency wallet BRD is announcing that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding.The funding comes from SBI Crypto Investment, a subsidiary of Japanese financial services company SBI Holdings (formerly a subsidiary of SoftBank).
BRD said the funding will allow it to grow its product and engineering teams, and to expand in Japan and across Asia.&SBI Group investment in BRD allows us to firmly cement ourselves in the Asian market,& said BRD co-founder and CEO Adam Traidman in a statement.
&It shows incredible support for the foundation that we have built in North America and reinforces our proven ability to scale the success we have achieved in the past 4 years.
The new investment will ensure our long-term global growth, and we are incredibly excited about collaborating with SBI as a strategic investor and business partner to make that happen.&It surprising to see a crypto startup raising money now, given the broader crypto downturn.After all, BRD bills itself as the simplest way to start buying and storing cryptocurrencies — but does that mean anything if consumers are being scared away from investingWhen I asked Spencer Chen, the company vice president of global marketing (and an occasional friend of mine),about the industry recent challenges, he argued, &The need for a single, global currency still exists.&&That what all got lost in 2018 as the fast-money, traders, and speculators came piling into the crypto space,& Chen told me via email.
&It really convoluted the core mission of a natively digital currency.
Money that worked just like the open internet.
As a company that built-to-last and committed to the core mission of crypto currency, there was nothing more frustrating than to witness the many steps backwards the industry at large took in 2018.&In fact, BRD says it doubled its total install base in 2018, ending the year with 1.8 million users globally.
It also says it currently being used to store the equivalent of $6 billion mostly in Bitcoin and Ethereum — with a 24 percent increase in monthly active users between November and December, after it started accepting stablecoins (which are pegged to the value of a fiat currency).BRD has now raised a total of $55 million.
It also announcing a partnership with Coinify, allowing users to make cryptocurrency purchases using bank accounts in the European market.