With the market in tatters, crypto firms and investors have been bearing the brunt. While most organizations have been trying to cut costs by laying off staff and reducing other expenses, a few have been using this as an opportunity to expand their scale of operations.
In just the past ten months, the digital assets platform FalconX has doubled its valuation. Per recent reports, the company’s valuation was $8 billion in a new funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Besides GIC, new investors in the company include private equity firm Thoma Bravo and Adams Street Capital. In contrast, existing investors Tiger Global Management, Thoma Bravo, and Wellington Management also diverted additional funds to FalconX.
The funding round clocked in $150 million from new and existing investors. The company intends to use the proceeds in acquisitions, technology, and data analytics, expanding its services to institutions from trading execution, credit, and prime brokerage. Reuters, however, outlined,
Not all money will go to the company’s coffers as some investors also sold an undisclosed stake in FalconX.
The chief executive and founder, Raghu Yarlagadda, highlighted that FalconX plans to increase its workforce by 30% in the coming months by adding 55 new employees to the company.
Volatility is an opportunity to…?
The crypto market volatility evaporated for a while during the beginning of this month. However, post the recent dumps, it has been hovering around its multi-month highs again.
FalconX’s exec expects the current state to prolong and opined that such phases are good for acquisitions. Yarlagadda said,
“Over the next 12 to 18 months, we do expect a very volatile market. And, given that volatility, we see very strong opportunities for acquisitions.”
Yarlagadda further outlined that the environment for funding raising has become more challenging for crypto companies because investors’ outlook has changed. Elaborating on the same, he said,
“The big theme as we spoke with these investors is the flight to value because investors are no longer looking at growth and cost… Now, investors are very specific about sustainable growth. They’re looking at profitability.”
The exec revealed to Reuters that FalxonX is already profitable and has reached a record number of customers without further disclosing details.