[Funding alert] Fiat-to-crypto gateway Transak raises $660K in seed round, expands India focus

Fiat-to-crypto payment gateway Transak has announced that it has raised funding of $660,000 (approx Rs 4.8 crore) in a seed round led by Consensys, The Lao, IOSG Ventures, LuneX Ventures, Koji Capital, and other angel investors.

Transak is a fiat-to-crypto payment gateway that streamlines the process of buying and selling cryptocurrency, allowing both mainstream users and businesses to access crypto and blockchain. It allows users to use their fiat currency to buy cryptocurrencies and vice-versa, acting as both an on-ramp for applications.

According to Investopedia, Fiat money is a government-issued currency that is not backed by a commodity such as gold. Fiat money gives central banks greater control over the economy because they can control how much money is printed. Most modern paper currencies, such as the US dollar, are fiat currencies.

The company is looking to expand its operations, partnerships, and work base in India, and is going to use the amount raised to hire more engineers and expand its team in the country. Transak has existing operations in more than 60 countries, and plans to expand and consolidate this coverage by the end of 2021.

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Transak acts both as a B2C platform where one can buy cryptocurrencies directly into their wallet using fiat money, and a B2B platform in the form of a developer integration that can be used by third-party applications and websites. Transak allows for applications to enable the use of cryptocurrency for transactions via its application. On Transak, one will be able to buy crypto using bank transfers, debit/credit cards, wallets, and various payment applications worldwide.

Transak is integrated with fiat payment methods around the globe that can be used to make the purchase. Currently, the company is working closely with other players in the Indian blockchain ecosystem, including WazirX and Matic Network. Globally, Transak is integrated by top wallets and apps such as Metamask, Klever Wallet, and Edge Wallet, and top DeFi apps such as Maskbook, Aave, and Index Coop.

London-based Transak said in a statement that India's cryptocurrency trading community has grown many times over, but still represents a small portion of the world's youngest economy. Decentralised finance has caught the attention of many potential traders and investors due to the high returns and constant growth of the market. The Indian talent in the crypto ecosystem has shown exceptional performance, and has driven remarkable results for various players in the industry. Thus, the company aims to acquire the best Indian talent to build a strong team for operations in the country.

Whilst traditional crypto exchanges allow users to trade and speculate on cryptocurrencies, Transak's mission is to allow users to access cryptocurrency from fiat in order to actually use blockchain applications, decentralised finance (DeFi), payments, and many more applications. Whilst these applications are still in their infancy, they are expected to be used throughout India and the world to power the lives of individuals and businesses within the next five years.

Sami Start and Yeshu Agarwal, Co-founders, Transak said:

“We are extremely confident about our expansion plans in India. The Indian blockchain market is growing rapidly and needs on and off-ramps to make the crypto world accessible to all. The company is excited to acquire fresh Indian talent, which is known to be exceptional across the globe and are dedicated to building a strong team in the country to take over the Indian operations. We are highly motivated to ease the friction in the global crypto market and take decentralised finance mainstream.”

In 2021, the founding duo plans to expand to more fiat payment methods, integrate with more blockchains and protocols, refine and scale their core processing engine, as well as explore new markets (with a keen focus on India) that are built on top of fiat-to-crypto payments.