Indian Bitcoin wallet service provider Zebpay is set to secure a $5 mln funding round by October 2016 from prominent US-based venture capital firms.
Zebpay co-founder Saurabh Agrawal stated in an interview that the company is pursuing major deals with leading investors to obtain a multi-million Series A funding round, which will raise the total investment in Zebpay to $6 mln.
In early January, the Indian Bitcoin startup secured a $1 mln investment from angel investors including Jindal Worldwide managing director Amit Jindal, leading the round with personal investments.
Rapidly Increasing Userbase
At the time, Zebpay’s goal was to establish 25,000 active users, which was substantially high considering the premature Bitcoin infrastructure and industry in India. Within 10 months, the Zebpay team reached a 100,000 active user milestone, with a rapid user growth at 20,000 users per month.
“100,000 downloads is a big milestone for us. We are currently adding 20,000 users every month and we are confident about meeting the target of touching 350,000 downloads by the end of 2016! We are on a mission to spread Bitcoins across India. We believe it has the potential to bring technological disruption to the financial infrastructure,” said Mahin Gupta, co-founder and CTO, Zebpay.
The Zebpay further emphasized that its revenue margins have improved significantly over the past 12 months, which is an appealing aspect of the firm if the low revenue streams of many Bitcoin startups are considered.
With its seed funding in January, Zebpay grew the startup to become the largest Bitcoin exchange and wallet service provider in all of india. The company believes that its new multi-million dollar investment will allow the company to aggressively grow its presence and user base.
Increasing Bitcoin Mainstream Adoption in India
A large factor of Zebpay success is the rapidly growing Fintech and Bitcoin sector in India.
Due to the dominance of the remittance market and the limitations of traditional banking services, an increasing number of workers and millennials are looking towards cheaper alternatives for remittances and payment settlement services.
With low transaction fees, Bitcoin startups like Zebpay has been successful in targeting the $69 bln remittance market of India, which drastically enhanced their trading volumes and active userbase.