Backed by Peter Thiel-led fund, crypto co Vauld plans global push

Singapore headquartered crypto platform Vauld is looking to expand its international presence, ramp up hiring and licensing to continue offering crypto banking and investments on its platform.

On Thursday, the company announced raising $25 million (Rs 186 crore approximately) in a Series A round of funding led by Peter Thiel backed early-stage technology venture capital firm, Valar Ventures. 

The round also saw participation from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, CMT Digital, Gumi Cryptos, Robert Leshner, Cadenza Capital, among others. This takes the total capital raised by Vauld so far to $27 million.

Founded in 2018 by Darshan Bathija and Sanju Sony Kurian, Vauld currently counts Binance and BitGo as exchange and custody partners. 

The Vauld platform lets individuals buy, borrow, lend and trade in 30 cryptocurrencies. A large part of the company’s operations is in India, CEO Bathija said in a statement.

“We’ve seen great momentum with Vauld and we attribute it to both our technology as well as our customer support—that’s our strongest suit and it’s proven because when customers start using Vauld, they don’t leave,” Bathija said in the statement.

The company has seen its Assets Under Management (AUM) grow by 124% quarter-on-quarter from Q1 to Q2 of 2021.

“What cemented the deal is Vauld’s global positioning and ambitions and the vision Darshan and his team have for building their customers’ wealth through crypto. We look forward to Vauld benefiting from our team’s expertise in understanding how to build a global business across emerging tech hubs in Europe, Asia, and North America,” said Andrew McCormack of Valar Ventures in the statement.

The announcement comes at a time when the cryptocurrency trade in India is under close watch by the government. In June the enforcement directorate sent a show-cause notice to cryptocurrency exchange WazirX for FEMA violations to the tune of $382 million.