Prominent Exchange KuCoin Raises $150M in pre-Series B Funding Round

• Several investment funds participated in the pre-Series B round.
• KuCoin is a major crypto exchange with over 700 digital assets.

The global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin aims to go beyond centralized trading services and focus on Web3 with new funding backed by firms like Circle Ventures. The KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange officially announced on May 10 a $150 million pre-Series B funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to $10 billion. Several investment funds participated in the pre-Series B round, including IDG Capital, Circle Ventures, and Matrix Partners.

KuCoin is a major crypto exchange with over 700 digital assets. Over 18 million people throughout the globe presently use it for margin trading, futures trading, spot trading, P2P fiat trading, lending, and staking. The latest funding round mainly aims to strengthen the exchange’s partnership with major industry players and promote the mass adoption of crypto.

The latest KuCoin raise is led by Jump Crypto, the cryptocurrency arm of a major quantitative trading firm, Jump Trading Group. Circle Ventures, the crypto investment division of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, is among the new investors in the round. Existing investors include major investment firm IDG Capital and the private equity investment firm Matrix Partners, which participated in KuCoin’s $20 million Series A funding round in November 2018.

As part of KuCoin’s plan to focus on decentralized trading services and presence in Web3, the company plans to build and invest in crypto wallets, services related to decentralized finance (DeFi), GameFi and non-fungible token (NFT) platforms. The firm particularly plans to invest in its arms like KuCoin Labs and KuCoin Ventures, and the public community chain known as KCC.