Chinese cryptocurrency finance startup Amber Group announced that it has raised $28 million during its Series A funding round, which was led by Pantera Capital and Paradigm fund.
Additional participants included: Polychain Capital, Blockchain.com, Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, and Dragonfly Capital.
On its official website, Amber Group describes itself as a Hong Kong-based startup. Bloomberg, however, has called it a Shenzhen, China-based organisation. As such; the origins and headquarters of Amber Group appear to be disputed.
Amber Group offers clients a variety of cryptocurrency finance services, including:
- Crypto-based electronic market making.
- Automated OTC Trading.
- Collateralized Lending.
- Yield Enhancement.
- Execution Services.
Back in August 2019, Bloomberg reported that Amber Group added Jeffrey Wang to its portfolio of senior staff members. Wang was the Head of Derivatives, Asia for Morgan Stanley and joined Amber Group to work as the Head of Americas, at the Vancouver office.
Pantera Capital, founded in 2013, was one of the leaders in the investment round (according to a report by Coindesk), is a prolific VC entity which you may have read about as coverage regarding its investments frequently appears in respected cryptocurrency media outlets.
It describes itself as “an investment firm focused exclusively on ventures, tokens, and projects related to blockchain tech, digital currency, and crypto assets”. Pantera has additionally called itself “the first U.S. Bitcoin investment firm”.
The mission of Pantera is to “act as the catalyst for widespread blockchain adoption and innovation”, and:
“Within the next several years, we envision blockchains and digital currencies having an established, responsibly managed, and regulated role in the global economy, soon after disintermediating a myriad of industries.”
Other notable recent partnerships / investments include when Pantera Capital and Jack Dorsey-owned Square joined blockchain payments startup Transparent’s $14 million series A funding round, back in February of this year. Transparent Financial Systems, started back in 2018, and claims to build “seamless, on-demand 24/7 settlement solutions” leveraging “cryptographically-secured distributed networks”.
In October 2019, Pantera Capital led a $5 million seed round for Vega, a decentralized derivatives startup ‘Vega’. Other participants in this funding round included:
“Xpring [(Ripple)], KR1, Eden Block, Docus Labs, Greenfield One, Monday Capital, RSK Ecosystem Fund, and a group of unnamed private investors”.
Vega is “a protocol for creating and trading derivatives on a fully decentralised network”.
Paradigm fund was founded in 2013, and claims that its mission is: a dedication towards “optimizing the risk-reward ratio” of its clients’ portfolios, including a delivery of a “well-balanced exposure to crypto-assets”.
The fund calls itself “an investment firm focused on blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and cryptonetworks shaping data economy and financial industry”.
