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Indians are slowly and steadily considering Cryptocurrency as a safe mode of investment. Mostly the younger generation is taking interest in Cryptos. According to some reports, the average age of crypto investors in India is around 24 years. However, there are still many speculations about crypto trading and many investors are not comfortable with Crypto trading still. This is why the Bangalore-based startup, CoinSwitch Kuber was formed in 2017 to make crypto trading simpler for Indian Investors.
The startup enables trading in several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and many others, using INR. You just need to download the CoinSwitch Kuber iOS or android app and start trading. In this StartupTalky article, we are exploring more about CoinSwitch Kuber, the story behind the startup, and what the startup is offering, which includes CoinSwitch Kuber website, CoinSwitch Kuber reviews, CoinSwitch Kuber deposit, CoinSwitch Kuber investors, CoinSwitch Kuber login, CoinSwitch Kuber fees, and how it is growing!
CoinSwitch Kuber – Company Highlights
| Startup Name | CoinSwitch Kuber |
|---|---|
| Also Known As | Coinswitch.co |
| Headquarters | Singapore |
| Industry | Financial Services, Fintech, Trading Platform, Cryptocurrency |
| Founders | Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, and Vimal Sagar Tiwari |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Valuation | $1.9+ bn |
| Current CEO | Ashish Singhal |
| CoinSwitch Kuber website | coinswitch.co |
About CoinSwitch Kuber and How it Works?
CoinSwitch Kuber – Industry
CoinSwitch Kuber – Logo, Tagline, and Slogan
CoinSwitch Kuber – Founders and Team
CoinSwitch Kuber – Startup Story
CoinSwitch Kuber – Mission and Vision
CoinSwitch Kuber – Partnerships
CoinSwitch Kuber – Business Model and Revenue Model
CoinSwitch Kuber – Growth and Revenue
CoinSwitch Kuber – Funding and Investors
CoinSwitch Kuber – ESOPs
CoinSwitch Kuber – LayOffs
CoinSwitch Kuber – Competitors
CoinSwitch Kuber – Challenges Faced
CoinSwitch Kuber – Future Plans
About CoinSwitch Kuber and How it Works?
CoinSwitch Kuber is a cryptocurrency trading platform that aims to simplify investing in cryptocurrencies. CoinSwitch Kuber aggregates liquidity across major Indian and global crypto exchanges. The platform’s order matching engine provides the traders the best rates at the click of a button, thus making trading simpler than ever.
“We discovered that the price of crypto swings between exchanges based on supply and demand when trading in crypto ourselves. Choosing the correct exchange is crucial if you want to obtain greater profits from the market. “We created an aggregator of various exchanges that offered us real-time data on which exchange is the best to trade at any particular instant to obtain the highest return,” co-founder Ashish says explaining the idea behind the startup
CoinSwitch Kuber lets users trade across 100+ cryptocurrencies. Users can buy cryptocurrency using a credit or debit card at competitive prices on the CoinSwitch platform. After completing the KYC/AML processes, customers may use the pooled liquidity of India’s top exchanges to receive the best rate and trade instantly.
The CoinSwitch Kuber mobile app comes with a simple user interface that makes crypto trading a breeze.
While customers from over 200 locations in India invest in crypto through its platform, tier I cities account for 40% of its users, while tier II (36%) and tier III (24%) make up the majority of its clientele. On CoinSwitch, the average ticket size per user is 9,000 per month, however, this varies by city. The average ticket size in Tier I is Rs 11,600, compared to Rs 6,600 in tier II and Rs 3,500 in tier III.
What’s interesting or concerning, depending on one’s perspective, is that the average age of a crypto investor on CoinSwitch is 24 years, and Singhal claims that crypto is the first investment in any asset class for 65% of his customers outside of savings bank accounts and fixed deposits!
CoinSwitch Kuber – Industry
India is one of the fastest-growing crypto markets, as per research firm Chainalysis, which said that the Indian market for crypto increased by a whopping 641% between July 2020 and June 2021.
CoinSwitch Kuber – Logo, Tagline, and Slogan
CoinSwitch Kuber’s tagline says, “Buy, Sell, Trade.” CoinSwitch Kuber has launched a new campaign with the catchphrase “Trade Kar, Befikar.”
CoinSwitch Kuber – Founders and Team
CoinSwitch Kuber was founded by Vimal Sagar Tiwari, Govind Soni, and Ashish Singhal in 2017.
Ashish Singhal
Ashish Singhal is the Co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch Kuber. Former Amazon employee who interned at Microsoft, Ashish Singhal, is a computer science graduate from Delhi’s Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology. Besides handling various technical roles in companies like Livspace.com and Reap Benefit, Ashish founded startups like CRUXPay (an open-source protocol for blockchain naming services) and Urban Tailor, which is the first of its kind at home tailoring services. He left the position at Urban Tailor in September 2016, but continued with CRUXPay, before stepping down from that too in April 2020.
Govind Soni
CoinSwitch Kuber Co-founder and CTO, Govind Soni was also a former Amazon and Livspace employee. Besides CoinSwitch Kuber, Govind co-founded CRUXPay along with Ashish and Vimal. Soni was also a student of the same college as Ashish, where he studied Computer Engineering, and served as the Co-founder and CTO also at CRUXPay, before stepping down from it in January 2021.
Vimal Sagar Tiwari
CoinSwitch’s Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO), Vimal Sagar, worked with organizations like Zynga and Accenture. He graduated from the Jaypee University of Information Technology. Vimal is also a Co-founder of CRUXPay, and is still retaining the positions of Co-founder and COO at CRUXPay.
The CFO, CBO, and SVP quit their roles to start up a new initiative that will offer insights to web3 investors. Sarmad Nazki, Sharan Nair, and Krishna Hegde of CoinSwitch Kuber haven’t finalised the name of the startup yet, as per news dated July 8, 2022. Nazki has served in the position for a little more than a year. Nair joined CoinSwitch Kuber just after the company was launched in 2017, and held numerous positions during his long stint, whereas Hegde joined the unicorn crypto company in September 2021. CoinSwitch Kuber confirmed that the positions of CFO, CBO, and SVP will be taken up by Ramesh Bafna, Rishav Dev, and R Ventakesh. The trio has already been talking to Web3 focused-investors to raise a seed round ahead.
The CoinSwitch Kuber team has an employee count that somewhere ranges between 501-1000, as per its Linkedin profile.
Sarika Anand
CoinSwitch Kuber – Startup Story
The origin of CoinSwitch Kuber can be traced to the realisation of Govind, Vimal and Ashish, all of whom were computer engineers and friends, when they discovered that the price of cryptocurrency is dynamic. It varied slightly across all the prominent crypto exchanges, based on the demand and supply. Therefore, they thought that if the users wanted to get better returns from the market, especially when it comes to scale, they needed to choose a good cryptocurrency exchange. This is what made them decide to create an aggregator of crypto exchanges. Here, their main aim was to provide real-time data on the best prices and exchanges for cryptocurrencies to be traded.
Ashish, Govind, and Vimal, who are all in their early thirties, have been friends since their college days when Ashish and Govind were batchmates, and Vimal was a mutual friend of theirs. They were also tech whizzes who competed in hackathons as a group. Almost every big hackathon in India was won by the trio, including the ones organised by Sequoia, Google, Amazon, and LinkedIn. Surprisingly, CoinSwitch was inspired by a hack that the trio subsequently made public.
On one occasion, the founders-to-be of CoinSwitch created a simple crypto exchange aggregator in a hackathon, but little did they know that the hack would later turn into a full-fledged company.
CoinSwitch Kuber was founded in 2017, and as soon as it launched, the startup started to take users on board at a rapid scale. The users “needed simplicity in the crypto world”, said Ashish, and this made the simple and intuitive nature of the product work. The only goal that the founders of CoinSwitch had while working on the product was to make crypto easy to understand and accessible to the masses.
However, soon after CoinSwitch was launched as a product, RBI’s announcement came, where the body signaled a ban on the cryptos by asking the banks to refrain from supporting these currencies in 2018. This made the founders take their product, which was then simply known as “CoinSwitch”, to the global market.
Eventually, Sequoia Capital backed their venture, thereby making the CoinSwitch foray into success. Though the platform turned successful indeed outside of India, the hearts of the CoinSwitch founders were set only on their country.
This turned real when Supreme Court intervened, overruling the previous RBI ban, thereby making it an open season for the crypto-based businesses like WazirX, ZebPay, CoinSwitch and more. This was more than a silver lining for them. They soon launched CoinSwitch Kuber app just for the Indian market.
CoinSwitch Kuber – Mission and Vision
The CoinSwitch Kuber team believes in financial inclusion, which means that wealth, investment, and financial education should be accessible to all people.
CoinSwitch Kuber’s mission statement says, “Our Mission is to challenge the status quo. We believe that our platform democratizes cryptocurrency investment so the everyday man can make his money work for him – without a fancy degree or a boatload of money.”
The company’s vision is to make crypto trading simple and transparent.
CoinSwitch Kuber – Partnerships
NDTV and CoinSwitch Kuber have established a strategic collaboration to provide comprehensive and best-in-class cryptocurrency programming in August 2021. NDTV will create unique crypto destinations on gadgets360.com, ndtvprofit.com, and ndtvindia.in as part of this relationship. This bridge expansion includes a refreshing show on NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India every other weekend.
The need for trustworthy and accurate information is more important than ever as cryptocurrencies become more mainstream and more individuals begin to evaluate this asset class. With NDTV’s credibility and confidence, as well as CoinSwitch Kuber’s subject expertise and powerful trading platform, this collaboration aims to bridge that gap.
CoinSwitch Kuber Partners with Startup Karnataka for Blockchain Hackathon
The Blockchain Hackathon, Building Future Cities, an initiative decided by Startup Karnataka of Karnataka government, and Tejasvi Surya, Bengaluru South MP, will also have CoinSwitch as its partner. This initiative is aimed to recognize blockchain-based solutions and bring them to the citizens from across the country, in order to dissolve the everyday problems they face. Sequoia India will also be backing this hackathon.
Alan Joseph
CoinSwitch Kuber – Business Model and Revenue Model
CoinSwitch Kuber is one of just a few cryptocurrency companies currently functioning. Users may acquire shards of various major cryptocurrencies on the crypto market. On CoinSwitch, for example, a user may buy bitcoin and other currencies in tiny sachets for as little as 100 Indian rupees ($1.30), which proves really profitable for the users. Besides, where other crypto exchanges came up with products for the traders who are acquainted with the order books, and are well-versed with buying/selling orders, CoinSwitch distinguished itself by targeting the users who hadn’t see an order book before, and wasn’t aware of what it was.
CoinSwitch Kuber presents itself as an aggregator and don’t charge the users, in contradiction to other crypto exchanges, which usually charge transaction fees from the users. CoinSwitch Kuber, instead, of a maker, negotiates with the crypto exchanges on transaction fees.
Speaking on the business and revenue model of CoinSwitch Kuber, Founder and CEO, Ashish Singhal said, “We give a fixed price to users and aggregate supply on the backend, Our execution engine is where the revenue comes from. But going forward, earning models may evolve as innovations and regulations come into play.”
CoinSwitch Kuber offers its users free trading, deposit, and withdrawal facilities for the first 100 days. After that, a fee is charged on each transaction made through the platform. As per the terms of the company, there is no fee for the transfer of digital assets to the CoinSwitch Kuber wallet, however, withdrawal of digital assets from the wallet may attract charges. The platform also charges for the transfer of fiat currency through credit/debit cards or net banking.
CoinSwitch Kuber – Growth and Revenue
CoinSwitch Kuber has managed to impress investors with its concept and performance. In addition to Tiger Global Management’s $25 million investment in April 2021, Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Paradigm, Kunal Shah, the creator of Cred, and others have backed CoinSwitch. With the recent funding received from Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures in October 2021, CoinSwitch Kuber reached Unicorn status with a valuation of $1.9 billion.
CoinSwitch Kuber boasts of witnessing the highest number of downloads among the crypto startups in India in 2021 when it was downloaded more than 6.1 mn times.
Ever since CoinSwitch was started and was taken global after the RBI ban, the company started seeing huge transactions through their app. Within just 2 years, CoinSwitch Kuber has seen more users onboard its app than any other crypto exchange in India. This growth has been mainly due to the simplified UX that the app brought in, and its decision to not provide the users with certain trading features.
Singhal points out that unlike other startups they did not knock on the investors’ doors.
“We did not reach out to Tiger Global for funding. They contacted us and expressed their willingness to invest in our company. Tiger doesn’t invest less than $100 million but we said we just need $25 million,” says Singhal.
Kuber claims to have over 15 million users in India, and the monthly active user count of CoinSwitch Kuber is over 7 million. It has also been disclosed that more than half of them are under the age of 25. CoinSwitch Kuber claims to have handled $5 billion in transactions in the last 11 months.
The firm intends to expand its operations outside cryptocurrency in the future.
“We intend to expand into traditional finance, such as equities, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and bonds, and provide a full portfolio on our platform to retail customers,” says the company.
“We are not a capex-intensive business, and don’t need too much money. Hence, our EBITDA margins are in the range of 60-65%,” reveals Singhal.
CoinSwitch Rolls Out the Web3 Discovery Fund
CoinSwitch has launched the Web3 Discovery Fund, which is a fund that will invest in and help incubate early-stage startups that are engaged in building blockchain solutions for the Web3 space. This Web3 startups funding initiative of CoinSwitch is currently aiming to help up to 100 Indian startups, as per the reports dated August 10, 2022. Ashish Singhal, the CoinSwitch Co-founder and CEO stated that the fund has already received an initial corpus of $10 mn and the company is further looking to raise some more funds from marquee investor partners ahead.
CoinSwitch: some of the major growth highlights are:
- It has over 2 crore+ users as of February 2024
- It is backed by some of the world’s leading investors including a16z, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India.
Financials
| CoinSwitch Financials | FY22 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| Operating Revenue | Rs 249 crore | Rs 46 crore |
| Total Expenses | Rs 763 crore | Rs 482 crore |
| Profit/Loss | Loss of Rs 513 crore | Loss of Rs 385 crore |
EBITDA
| CoinSwitch FY22-FY23 | FY22 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| EBITDA Margin | -204% | -396.3% |
| Expense/Rs of Op Revenue | Rs 3.07% | Rs 10.57% |
| ROCE | -25% | -24% |
Damini Bhandary
CoinSwitch Pro
On November 22, 2023, CoinSwitch launched the multiexchange trading platform CoinSwitch Pro on November 22, 2023. This platform marks a significant advancement for cryptocurrency enthusiasts and traders. This cutting-edge platform not only provides users with a comprehensive view of multiple tokens across various exchanges but also empowers them to make informed decisions by comparing prices and selecting the most suitable options.
What sets this platform apart is its seamless functionality, allowing users to effortlessly trade crypto assets in INR across a multitude of exchanges, all through a single login. This streamlining of the trading process not only enhances the user experience but also signifies a pivotal step towards greater accessibility and user-friendliness within the cryptocurrency realm.
There is a variable transaction charge associated with using the cross-exchange platform, depending on the crypto exchange that is used. The CoinSwitch Pro platform stands out for its flexibility in serving various users and exchangers.
CoinSwitch Kuber – Funding and Investors
CoinSwitch Kuber has raised over $300 mn over 4 funding rounds. It is now counted among the unicorn startups of India, with a valuation of over $1.9 bn.
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 6, 2021 | Series C | $260M | Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures |
| Apr 22, 2021 | Series B | $22.7M | Tiger Global Management |
| Jan 13, 2021 | Series A | $15M | Paradigm, Ribbit Capital |
| Mar 24, 2018 | Seed Round | $1.5M | – |
Andreessen Horowitz is a CoinSwitch Kuber investor, who invested for the first time ever in India in the $260 mn funding round of CoinSwitch, and was joined by Coinbase Inc., which turned CoinSwitch into a unicorn. Some other investors of CoinSwitch are Tiger Global, Paradigm, Ribbit Capital etc.
CoinSwitch Kuber – ESOPs
CoinSwitch Kuber recorded their first-ever ESOP buyback programme on March 21, 2022, worth $2.5 million. This buyback round was a mixture of funding that came from both the internal and external sources.
CoinSwitch Kuber – LayOffs
CoinSwitch in a recent move, has undertaken a strategic restructuring initiative, resulting in the reduction of its workforce by 8%. This decision translated to approximately 44 employees being laid off from various departments. Presently, CoinSwitch boasts a total workforce of 519 employees, as per their LinkedIn profile.
The impact of these layoffs has predominantly been felt within the customer support team, where the majority of the affected employees were stationed. While such decisions are often undertaken as part of broader efforts to optimize and realign company resources, they undoubtedly bring about significant transitions for both the organization and the employees involved.
In the official statement company spokesperson said, “we right-sized our customer support team to align with the present volume of customer queries on our platform. This impacted the roles of 44 members of our customer support team, who voluntarily resigned from their roles after a detailed discussion with their managers earlier this month.”
CoinSwitch Kuber – Competitors
To mention, the top 10 competitors of CoinSwitch Kuber are:
CoinSwitch Kuber – Challenges Faced
CoinSwitch Kuber employs over 120 people and has over 4.5 million users on its network. In comparison to other applications on the market, the app provides consumers with a clean UI and UX design. However, it was recently discovered that the app does not support UPI payments.
On April 21, 2021, the organization announced on all of its official social media accounts that INR deposits in the CoinSwitch Kuber App will be disabled. CoinSwitch Kuber said on Twitter that the firm has temporarily blocked all INR deposits owing to unforeseen problems with their banking partner. The issue was later resolved and now INR deposits are enabled.
Cryptocurrency is a murky area in India. Despite the legalization of crypto investments in India, there are many fears and doubts related to the topic. When it comes to difficulties, Ashish believes the company’s sole issue is teaching people in India about cryptocurrencies and the ecosystem.
CoinSwitch Kuber had got into trouble in association with the idea of lending feature with the SEC, and as a result, Ashish had to drop the idea. However, the founders still are of the opinion that they would be able to use the lending and stakes feature to utilise them for earning revenues in the future. They have already started working to make it possible by working with regulators and gaining their confidence.
As the trading of cryptocurrency lacks defined regulations, CoinSwitch Kuber temporarily paused crypto withdrawals.
CoinSwitch Received ED Notice in Association with FEMA investigation
CoinSwitch reportedly received a notice from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) along with some other cryptocurrency firms like CoinDCX in association with the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) investigation. Here, ED is determining whether or not these companies were engaged in offences related to foreign currencies. On this, CoinSwitch mentioned that it has received notifications from ED and is ready to comply with them, as per reports dated July 12, 2022.
CoinSwitch Kuber – Future Plans
CoinSwitch has revealed plans to build a cryptocurrency investment platform by June 2024 that is targeted at retail investors as per news report of March 11, 2024. Through the provision of user-centric technology, this program seeks to democratize access to digital asset trading and enable users to navigate investments with confidence.
FAQs
What does CoinSwitch Kuber do?
CoinSwitch Kuber is a crypto trading platform for individual investors that is available only in the Indian market via a mobile application. It enables trading in several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and many others, using INR and is available as a mobile application (INR).
Is CoinSwitch Kuber an Indian company?
Yes, CoinSwitch Kuber is an Indian company.
Where is the CoinSwitch Kuber headquarters?
CoinSwitch Kuber is currently headquartered in Singapore.
Which companies do CoinSwitch Kuber compete with?
Unocoin, WazirX, CoinDCX, Instamojo, Glidera, ZebPay, SmartCoin, IPaxful, Bitxoxo Bitcoins, and Coinbase are the top ten competitors of CoinSwitch Kuber.
When was CoinSwitch Kuber founded?
CoinSwitch Kuber was founded in 2017.
Who founded CoinSwitch Kuber?
CoinSwitch Kuber was founded by Vimal Sagar Tiwari, Govind Soni, and Ashish Singhal in 2017.
What is the CoinSwitch Kuber website?
The CoinSwitch Kuber website is coinswitch.co
What are the CoinSwitch Kuber fees?
CoinSwitch Kuber doesn’t ask the users anything such as the CoinSwitch Kuber fees. It rather poses itself as an aggregator and negotiates with the crypto exchanges on transaction fees.
How is CoinSwitch Kuber login done?
The CoinSwitch Kuber login procedure is really easy where the users need to download the app of the company and then they need to first have an account to log in to the same, with the same login credentials.
What are CoinSwitch investors?
Some of the prominent CoinSwitch investors are Ribbit Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Coinbase Inc., Sequoia, Paradigm and others.
What was the CoinSwitch deposit issue?
CoinSwitch deposit of rupees was temporarily disabled, but it was fixed after 2 long weeks.
What is wrong with CoinSwitch Kuber withdrawals?
When it comes to CoinSwitch Kuber withdrawals, the company has announced that it has temporarily disabled the withdrawal of cryptocurrencies.
