Venture Capitalist Draper invested and backed an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, UnoCoin, along with its backing of on-chain real estate company Propy. The blockchain-based real estate company raised $1.2m in its latest funding round led by Draper. Meanwhile, UnoCoin was able to secure $3.5m in its Series A funding led by Draper
It is worth taking note that Draper Associates provided seed funding for both companies. The VC company, owned by popular venture capitalist Tim Draper, has been proactive in funding nascent and promising startups since 1985. The San Francisco-based VC has several prominent investments under its belts like Tesla, Twitter, and Skype.
With the latest diversity of investments, Draper VC proves its mettle by backing all kinds of new and upcoming technologies across various sectors and industries.
India’s crypto exchange Unocoin raises Series A
Draper’s latest funding, UnoCoin, is one of India’s oldest cryptocurrency exchanges. With its investment round extending to the next few months, UnoCoin is eyeing to raise roughly $1.5m more. The Indian Crypto mogul is already profitable, and therefore labelled Draper’s investment to be “kind of insurance”.
The company currently has 30 employees and approximately 1.3 million customers. CEO Sathvik Vishwanath voiced his wish to raise the number of employees to 50 by the end of H1 2021. UnoCoin trades somewhere between $400,000 and $545,000 every day, with occasional surges in transactions.
The funding comes at a rough time for Indian crypto exchanges, as the central government is mulling over passing new legislation to ban trading of crypto assets. Logically, such a decision would be detrimental to UnoCoin’s growth.
Propy brings blockchain to real estate
Propy, a blockchain-based real estate startup also received a $1.2m seed funding led by Draper VC. The real estate company seeks to change the way its industry works by digitizing the entire process using blockchain.
Specifically, Propy intends to raise $500,000 more in this investment round, taking total funding up to $1.7m, according to its SEC filings.
“They have thought through the entire transition from an antiquated system of real estate, from the sale to title to a blockchain-based automated one,” Draper VC said about Propy’s new approach to real estate management.
Propy CEO Natalia Karayaneva was ecstatic about the funding. He asserted that while everyone thought that blockchain in real estate was a far-off possibility, their backers chose to help them achieve their cause.
