Taiwan-based XREX, a crypto-fiat FinTech company driving financial inclusion via blockchain, closed its $17 million Pre-A round, which was oversubscribed by 200 percent.
XREX will use the funding to expand its fiat currency portfolio, acquire additional licenses, and forge partnerships with more financial institutions and digital wallets, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Led by CDIB Capital Group, the consortium of global investors includes publicly-listed companies, major banks, venture capital firms, and FinTech investors from the US, Canada, Germany, Estonia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Other investors in this Pre-Series A round also include SBI Investment, Global Founders Capital, ThreeD Capital, E.Sun Venture Capital, Systex Corporation, Metaplanet Holdings, AppWorks, Black Marble, New Economy Ventures, and Seraph Group.
XREX closed its $7 million Seed round in 2019. The investors in that round included AppWorks (lead), Skype’s late-cofounder Toivo Annus, Metaplanet Holdings, Black Marble, CDIB, WI Harper, BitoEx, and the Taiwan government’s National Development Fund.
“Our mission is to foster global financial inclusion by leveraging blockchain,” said XREX Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Wayne Huang. “Many of our team members are from or have lived in the markets where we serve. We keenly understand the struggles faced by many cross-border merchants who lack safe access to US dollar liquidity.”
By working with local regulators and financial institutions, XREX has pioneered tools such as BitCheck and MyXchange to help merchants and SMEs in emerging markets reduce forex loss, gain access to US dollars and seamlessly cross over from informal to formal economy.
Capitalizing on a successful series of new features including their mandatory User Public Profile as well as their Risk Level Detector features, XREX will roll out a user Reputation Index next year to bolster safety, transparency, and accountability while encouraging social networking.
In the last eight months, XREX detected and prevented fraud rings from Russia and Nigeria from using the platform, attesting to XREX as one of the safest crypto-fiat currency platforms in the world.
Recognizing compliance is core to digital currency adoption, XREX partners with several compliance and anti-money laundering providers such as CipherTrace, Sum&Substance, and TRISA.
“CDIB was an early investor in XREX,” said Ryan Kuo, Head of CDIB Capital Innovation Fund. “After witnessing the company’s fast revenue growth and their commitment to compliance, we were determined to double our investment and lead this strategic round.”
Founded in Aug 2018 and headquartered in Taipei, XREX Inc said it is a crypto-fiat FinTech company with a mission of driving financial inclusion by solving the dollar liquidity shortage issue in emerging economies.
Armed with a team of experts in compliance, cryptocurrency, blockchain, fintech, and cross-border payments, XREX offers innovative solutions to help cross-border SMEs compete on an even playing field.
Featured image credits: XREX