Singaporean investment firm corporation Temasek was one of the investors in funding crypto platform Amber Group. This raised the app’s value at USD $3 billion.
The news came in weeks after a city-wide crackdown on crypto marketing.
Existing shareholders like Tiger Global Management, Sequoia China, and Pantera Capital also took part in the fundraising that garnered $200 million. Singapore-based company Amber announced that the group’s worth has tripled since mid-2021.
Last year, Temasek and its subsidiaries made many investments in the cryptocurrency niche. Initially announced in June 2021, Amber Group’s Series B investment round was extended to onboard Temasek as one of its investors.
“They are very strategic, so we made this special effort to bring them in,” Amber CEO Michael Wu said in an interview.
The funds would be used to expand the reach of the smartphone app the company released in 2021 and to hire team members in America and Europe. Wu mentioned that Amber may seek more funding later in 2022 to prepare for an initial public offering that will take place in the United States in 2023.
This deal comes in as Singapore continuously tries to clamp down more speculative aspects of crypto while encouraging institutional involvement. in January, the central bank warned companies in the crypto industry to limit marketing efforts to the public due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies.
Amber senior executives including Wu have transferred to Singapore from Hong Kong in the previous months as the Southeast Asian country continues to emerge as a hotspot for the cryptocurrency industry. In September, the company announced that it hired five former executives from Goldman Sash Group and Morgan Stanley to boost Amber’s expansions.
Around 180 companies have started their application to legally operate crypto transactions in Singapore. As of January 2022, five companies received the go signal to process.
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