Japan’s SBI Digital Asset Holdings Investment in Swiss Crypto Bank Sygnum to accelerate next growth phase
Sygnum, the world’s first digital asset bank, announces that it has secured an eight-figure USD investment from SBI Digital Asset Holdings, the digital asset umbrella company of SBI Group, as the lead investor of its Strategic Investment fundraising round. Marking a strong start to 2021, this further strengthens Sygnum’s and SBI’s strategic partnership that was established in October 2020 with a planned SBI-Sygnum Digital Asset Opportunity fund, which targets early-stage investments in digital asset startups.
- SBI Digital Asset Holdings, the digital asset umbrella company of SBI Group, will make an eight-figure USD investment as the lead investor of Sygnum’s Strategic Investment fundraising round
- This further develops Sygnum’s and SBI’s strategic partnership that was established in 2020 with a planned early-stage digital asset opportunity fund
- Proceeds will fuel the growth of Sygnum’s client base, drive the expansion into new markets in Europe and Asia, and accelerate the launch of new products and services
Accelerating Sygnum’s next growth phase
With the completion of this fundraising round, Sygnum will have raised around USD 30 million in the past six months, with its operations remaining well-capitalised. Combined with the recent tokenization of its own shares which laid the foundations for a potential future public offering, as well as a cost-efficient approach to bringing its digital asset banking platform to market, Sygnum stands ready to accelerate its business into its next growth phase.
Proceeds from this fundraising round will be used to continue the strong progress made last year to grow Sygnum’s assets under administration, which stood at over half a billion USD as of January 2021. This includes expanding its client base of private qualified and institutional investors, banks and other financial institutions. The proceeds will also drive Sygnum’s expansion into new markets in Europe and Asia from its Switzerland and Singapore headquarters, as well as accelerate the launch of new products and services, including:
- Commercialising Sygnum’s newly-launched Desygnate tokenization platform and SygnEx secondary market trading facility
- Expanding Sygnum’s open banking API infrastructure to enable banks and other market participants to offer their clients digital assets exposure with complete trust
- Increasing Sygnum’s range of institutional-grade custody features, such as additional staking services and yield generating products
- Developing new asset management products, such as the digital asset options that were launched in January 2021
“We are very pleased to welcome SBI Group as a trusted Sygnum shareholder and strategic partner,” said Mathias Imbach, Sygnum Co-Founder and Group CEO. “2020 saw digital assets receive a global surge in interest from institutional investors and financial institutions. Together with SBI’s deep and longstanding expertise in fintech and digital assets, we look forward to meeting the rising demand coming from Switzerland, Singapore and globally, and providing our clients with unique investment opportunities, empowering them to diversify into the emerging digital assets economy with complete trust,” he added.
SBI Holdings CEO & SBI Digital Asset Holdings Chairman, Yoshitaka Kitao, said: “We believe in the potential that digital assets and security tokens bring to investors and financial institutions. One of SBI’s growth strategies revolves around building a vibrant global ecosystem for the digital asset economy, and we are pleased to have Sygnum – with its digital product offering and expertise in Europe and Asia – as a strategic partner in this journey.”
“Regulated banking platforms will play an essential role in meeting the growing wave of institutional adoption for digital assets,” said Fernando Luis Vasquez Cao, SBI Digital Asset Holdings CEO. “As a regulated and professional digital asset specialist, Sygnum is the right partner to help us deliver on our vision to make this asset class more trusted,” he added.
“We are humbled by the positive feedback we have received from our clients and stakeholders for our regulated suite of products and services,” said Gerald Goh, Sygnum Co-Founder and CEO Singapore. “With this strong start to 2021, we look forward to
working with our stakeholders to continue innovating new solutions, launching new products, and ultimately providing our clients the ability to participate in the fast-growing digital assets opportunity in a safe, convenient, and fully-regulated manner.”
About Sygnum Group
Sygnum is the world’s first digital asset bank, and a digital asset specialist with global reach. With Sygnum Bank AG’s Swiss banking licence, as well as Sygnum Pte. Ltd.’s capital markets services (CMS) licence in Singapore, Sygnum empowers institutional and private qualified investors, corporates, banks and other financial institutions to invest in the digital asset economy with complete trust. Sygnum operates an independently controlled, scalable and future-proof regulated banking platform. Our interdisciplinary team of banking, investment and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) experts is shaping the development of a trusted digital asset ecosystem. The company is founded on Swiss and Singapore heritage, and operates globally.
About SBI Digital Asset Holdings Co., Ltd. and the SBI Group
SBI Digital Assets Holdings is the digital assets umbrella company of SBI Holdings, Inc and oversees and operates digital asset-related businesses. The company has investments into key portfolio companies including BRD, Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange, Sepior, Everspin and Tangem among others. SBI Digital Asset Holdings endeavors to bring innovation to the financial industry by building an ecosystem for issuance, custody, management, and liquidity for digital assets. SBI Digital Asset Holdings, via SBI group companies, has strong links with other group investments such as Ripple, R3, B2C2, Securitize, Boostry and has inroads to banking and securities infrastructure across Asia with businesses in Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Cambodia. SBI DAH has made significant inroads into building a trusted institutional grade global digital asset ecosystem. Recently, the company announced its plans for a joint Singapore based digital asset exchange with the SIX Group, and the integration of sbiwallet, a state-of-the-art institutional grade wallet solution, with Securitize in Japan.
The SBI Group is a leading global internet-based financial conglomerate. The SBI Group’s core businesses include Financial Services Business, Asset Management Business and Biotechnology-related Business. In addition, it is one of the largest Japanese private equity firms and leverages its extensive eco-system to further drive the value of its investments.
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