Hong Kong-based Babel Finance said it had raised $80 million in a new funding round, as it vowed to focus on long-term development instead of short-term profits.
The firm had raised $40 million in its previous round, a year earlier. The cryptocurrency lender and asset manager is now valued at $2 billion.
Investors who participated in the Series B financing round include Jeneration Capital, Circle Ventures and 10T Holdings, joined by existing backers Dragonfly Capital and BAI Capital. A number of Asia-Pacific family offices also joined the round.
Babel’s major businesses are crypto lending and trading limited to bitcoin, ethereum and stablecoins.
The firm has a clientele of 500 customers and had ended last year with $3 billion of loans on its balance sheet.
“The crypto financial market is full of opportunities and hidden risks,” co-founder and chief executive Del Wang said, adding that the firm has applied for business licences in Hong Kong, Luxembourg and the UK.
Babel’s latest capital raise follows a punishing slide in the value of cryptocurrencies in recent weeks, with bitcoin losing more than a third of its value in two months.
Investors, however, seem unfazed by the market rout and are seeing potential opportunities in the industry.
Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz raised $4.5 billion for its fourth crypto fund on Wednesday and said it intends to invest in Web3 startups.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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