U.S blockchain venture capitalist Digital Currency Group (DCG), today announced the acquisition of the U.K-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Luno, and that the Group made ‘financial commitments’ to help Luno expand globally. The funds involved in the acquisition, though, were not disclosed according to the release.
Luno, which has a customer base of five million users globally, first received investment from DCG in its seed round in 2014, the release stated. Co founder and CEO of Luno, Marcus Swanepoel, said in a blog that the acquisition would further enable the firm to reach their self-declared target of upgrading one billion people to a better financial system by 2030.
Further, he said that Luno customers could expect new changes after the acquisition but that co-founders, Timothy Stranex, Pieter Heyns, and Swanepoel would continue to build Luno and also become shareholders in DCG.
Moreover, Swanepoel added that Luno would continue to be run independently, and that Luno’s safety and security protocols would remain the same and there would be no change to how customers could trade their crypto on the platform.
Swanepoel also revealed that he had been closely working with DCG’s founder and CEO, Barry Silbert, for the last seven years. To which, the DCG CEO said that Luno was a high growth, global business and that the acquisition could be a massive opportunity to expand organically. Silbert summarized DCG’s other investments in a tweet that stated:
I’m incredibly proud of what we’re building at @DCGco. What an amazing group of companies all on a mission to build a better financial system@Grayscale @GenesisTrading @CoinDesk @FoundryServices @LunoMoney
— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) September 9, 2020
Founded in 2013, Luno has been backed by global tech giant the Naspers Group and Balderton Capital amongst others and has so far maintained regional offices in Kuala Lumpur, Lagos, Jakarta, and Johannesburg, as well as other regions across Europe, Africa, and Asia.
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