Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures leads $25m round of Singaporean crypto startup

Silicon Valley veteran Peter Thiel-founded Valar Ventures has led a series A round of US$25 million in Vauld, a startup for building wealth with cryptocurrency. Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, CMT Digital, Gumi Cryptos, Robert Leshner, Cadenza Capital, and others also participated in the round.

Vauld cofounder and CEO Darshan Bathija/ Photo credit: Vauld

The funding will be used to support the company’s international growth and licensing as well as expand its retail crypto banking and investing platform.

Vauld has built a platform for individuals around the world to easily access capital as well as grow their wealth through lending and trading cryptocurrencies. The platform supports over 30 cryptocurrencies with presence in over 160 countries and headquarters in Singapore.

Founded by Darshan Bathija and Sanju Sony Kurian in 2018, it says it has witnessed 200x growth in global user base over the last year.

According to a report, the cryptocurrency market size is expected to grow from US$1.6 billion in 2021 to US$2.2 billion by 2026, at a compounded annual growth rate of 7.1%. Of this, the Asia Pacific region including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and India will grow at the fastest rate.

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“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, general partner at Valar Ventures.

The startup had earlier raised US$2 million in December 2018.