With the booming digital bank industry in Asia Pacific, Fireblocks sees multiple opportunities to be a strategic partner in the region for both traditional financial institutions and crypto-natives alike.
«We are growing across all functional areas, from Account Management, Customer Success and Sales Engineering to Product and Business Solutions as well,» Stephen Richardson, the company's vice president, head of product strategy and business solutions, said.
Fireblocks operates an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Last week, the company announced a $310 million Series D fundraise, bringing its total funds raised to $489 million, and its valuation to $2 billion.
The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Spark Capital, Coatue, DRW VC and SCB 10X, the venture arm of Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, the third bank to invest in the platform after BNY Mellon and SVB Capital.
APAC Growth
The New York-headquartered company moved into the region less than two years ago, when it had less than 10 clients. It has since helped launch and scale over 90 digital asset based businesses across the APAC, Richardson told finews.asia in an interview.
Richardson said the regulatory clarity in jurisdictions like Singapore, its APAC hub, has enabled financial institutions to solidify their plans around entering the digital asset space. «We are seeing a significant number of inquiries from institutions as they now feel they have the green light to really launch products in this space,» he said.
With burgeoning demand, Richardson sees the company doubling its headcount in APAC, where it also has an office in Hong Kong, by early 2022.
