Cryptocurrency firm Amber gets funding from Singapore’s Temasek at US$3 billion valuation

Amber Group’s senior executives have relocated to Singapore from Hong Kong over the past few months, underscoring the city state’s emergence as a hub for the crypto industry

Temasek’s funding comes even as Singapore is clamping down on the more speculative aspects of crypto while at the same time encouraging institutional participation

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Published: 3:15pm, 22 Feb 2022

Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings was among investors in a funding round that valued cryptocurrency-trading platform Amber Group at US$3 billion, just weeks after the city state cracked down on marketing by crypto firms.

Existing shareholders, including Sequoia China, Pantera Capital and Tiger Global Management, also took part in the US$200 million financing, Singapore-based Amber said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company, founded in 2018 by five former Morgan Stanley traders, has seen its valuation triple since mid-2021.

Singapore is one of Asia’s hottest markets for crypto start-ups, and Temasek and its subsidiaries have made several investments in the sector in the past year. Amber extended its Series B funding round, originally announced in June, specifically to bring Temasek in as an investor, said chief executive Michael Wu.

“They are very strategic, so we made this special effort to bring them in,” Wu said in an interview.

Amber will use the proceeds for hiring in Europe and the Americas and expanding coverage of a mobile application it launched last year globally, according to the statement.

Wu said Amber may pursue another funding round later this year ahead of an initial public offering that could take place as early as the second half of 2023, most likely in the United States.