Amid the ongoing crypto market crash, a Singapore-based crypto investment startup has managed to raise $18.1 million in a Series A funding round. The startup called Pillow is a digital asset management platform. It has three Indian co-founders, Arindam Roy, Rajath KM and Kartik Mishra.
The Series A round saw participation from eminent VCs, including Jump Capital. The round was co-led by Accel and Quona Capital.
The Pillow project, which was launched last year, focuses on making crypto operations simpler. It does this by eliminating hurdles pertaining to gas fees, bridging, and security. Pillow aims to transform user experience in relation to investing and saving in blue-chip cryptos and US dollar-backed stablecoins.
Pillow co-founder Roy took to Twitter to make the announcement. “We now move to the next phase of our journey, one where millions of users worldwide are able to meaningfully interact with digital assets without barriers of geography, education, or infrastructure,” he said.
The fact that the platform was able to secure the funds despite the prevailing bear market confirms some predictions from earlier this year about VC funders remaining undeterred. A Reuters report, for instance, suggested that VCs had already invested $17.5 billion in crypto firms, globally, during the first half of 2022. VC crypto investments could therefore surpass last year’s record of $26.9 billion, the report concluded.
“The current market conditions—I don’t think they faze investors,” said Roderik van der Graf, founder of Hong Kong-based Lemniscap, an investment firm that focuses on crypto and blockchain. “The capital available is massive.”
The Pillow app, according to Roy’s post, has a user-base of over 75,000 members, spread across 60 countries. The company claims that since the beginning of 2022, their user base has grown by 300%. The number of assets it manages has also increased five times.
Pillow now intends to use the funds to expand further, spreading to Africa and Southeast Asia. The startup has already expanded into Nigeria, Ghana, Vietnam, and other emerging markets.
