Oi-Yee Choo, CEO of ADDX.
Singapore-based ADDX, which operates a securities exchange powered by blockchain technology, announced on Tuesday that it had secured roughly $20 million in a fundraising round led by KB Securities, the brokerage arm of one of Korea’s largest financial services firms KB Financial Group.
The investment marks an extension of ADDX’s $58 million funding round announced in May that saw the participant from investors including Singaporean billionaire Wee Cho Yaw’s United Overseas Bank, U.S. investment firm Hamilton Lane, the Stock Exchange of Thailand and the venture capital arm of Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya, according to a statement.
ADDX said it will use the additional proceeds to grow its recently-launched institutional wealth management platform. It will also explore possible tie-ups with KB Securities to expand its private-market investment services in Asia, including potential collaborations in Singapore or Korea.
ADDX’s blockchain-powered securities exchange allows users to buy and sell private-market investments, such as pre-IPO shares, unicorns, private equities and hedge funds. The company has listed more than 40 deals, including bonds issued by Singapore’s telecom giant Singtel and funds owned by state investor Temasek.
“ADDX has become the focal point for Asian financial institutions that believe in building a new technology-driven infrastructure for private markets, to overcome inefficiencies in the traditional model,” said Oi-Yee Choo, CEO of ADDX, in the statement. “In these volatile times, with many investors waiting by the sidelines for more stability in the financial markets, our ability to raise capital demonstrates the momentum behind ADDX and its mission.”
ADDX has bagged a total of $140 million since its inception in 2017 from the likes of Temasek’s Heliconia Capital, Singapore Exchange, Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings and Development Bank of Japan. The firm said it’s serving individual accredited investors from 39 countries across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas, excluding the U.S.
In June, ADDX announced that it will recognize cryptocurrency holdings in their process of assessing accredited investors, who are individuals with more than S$300,000 ($218,772) of income over the past 12 months, net financial assets of over S$1 million or net personal assets topping S$2 million. Cryptocurrencies acknowledged by the firm include bitcoin, ether and USDC stablecoin.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zinnialee/2022/11/16/singapore-blockchain-based-securities-exchange-scores-20-million-in-kb-securities-led-funding/