Coinbase, a popular U.S. based crypto exchanged announced $300 million in new funding.
This is the Series E round of fundraising for the exchange. According to a blog post, capital supporters include Tiger Global Management, with participation from Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain and more. The company has a current valuation of over $8 billion dollars.
Coinbase hopes to use the funding to accelerate the growth and adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Capital Raising Goals
The exchange has several goals they hope to accomplish with the latest round of fundraising including:
- Global Expansion, such as offering GBP as the first non-USD trading pair on Coinbase Pro
- Offering more assets, more quickly to the over 20 million users on the platform
- Utility applications such as the inclusion of Stablecoin USDC and other wallet services
- Develop more institutional support in crypto such as Coinbase Custody
Further, Coinbase reported they are still a “crypto-first” company and hope to use the funding to expand and accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency among general users and in the institutional space.
Berkshire Hathaway to Invest in FinTech
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway is breaking from their traditional value investing and dipping a toe into emerging markets and FinTech.
Wall Street Journal reported Berkshire Hathaway invested $600 million into two different new companies,Paytm and StoneCo.
Each company received a $300 million dollar investment. Paytm is India’s largest mobile-payments service, and claims to have more users than PayPal. StoneCo is a Brazilian payment processor.
Buffet’s claim to fame is investing in blue-chip stocks such as IBM, Wells Fargo, and Coca-Cola. While their investing strategy has remained the same for the last several decades, things have evolved over the last few years.
Two years ago, Berkshire Hathaway reversed their stance on airlines and began investing in four carriers, including Delta and American. The firm has largely avoided early stage tech companies and start-ups. However, Paytm and StoneCo dominate in each of their markets, so the move isn’t completely unexpected.
Buffet is open about the fact that technology is not his strong suit. Top money manager, Todd Combs, led the charge into the emerging markets FinTech play. Combs has a rich history in payment processing, and ran a fund called Castle Point capital, which focused on financial companies. Additionally, Combs now sits on the board of Paytm and also sits on the board of J.P Morgan.
Berkshire has continued to take a deeper foothold in tech companies and has been buying Apple stock since 2016. The firm is now the second largest shareholder in the company.
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