Babel Finance raises $40M to expand crypto offerings

The Series A round underscores growing investor appetite for crypto-focused institutional offerings.

Babel Finance, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency financial services provider, has secured $40 million in venture capital financing to expand its offerings to more institutional clients.

The Series A investment round was led by Zoo Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Dragonfly Capital, BAI Capital and Bertelsmann, and Tiger Global Management, the company announced Monday. Venture capital and private equity funds from North America, Asia and Europe participated in the raise.

Flex Yang, CEO of Babel Finance, said the investment round will aid the company in meeting growing institutional demand for crypto assets:

“The alliance with our new investors from traditional finance is a critical step for us to offer more innovative products, strengthen compliance controls, and ultimately provide a full suite of reliable services to meet the growing demand from mainstream investors who are keen to add crypto assets in their portfolio.”

Zoo Capital said Babel Finance is its first crypto-focused investment.

Founded in 2018, Babel Finance offers cryptocurrency lending, asset management and financing services to institutional investors. The company claims to have over 500 institutional clients and over $2 billion in outstanding balances for its crypto lending business. Its derivatives portfolio generates $8 billion in monthly trading volumes.

Institutional investors have become an integral part of the rapidly growing cryptocurrency market. Collectively, they hold over $64 billion in crypto assets under management, with large concentrations in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) products.

Within the institutional ranks, financial advisers are playing a bigger role in moving the needle on adoption. As Cointelegraph recently reported, Grayscale’s Michael Sonnenshein, Amber Group’s Jeffrey Wany and Tyr Capital’s Edouard Hindi believe advisers could be ushering in a new era of digital asset adoption.