Hong Kong-based one-stop cryptocurrency and social investment platform Kikitrade announced Monday the company has completed a $6 million strategic round co-led by AppWorks and Media Asia with participation from Audeo Ventures and existing shareholders.

This round of funding follows a $12 million investment led by internationally renowned investors Dragonfly Capital and Alan Howard last summer, bringing the total funds raised in the past 12 months to $18 million.

The funds raised this time will be deployed to expand into new international markets, Kikitrade said in a statement. The company had its foray to the Middle East last year, it is planning to enter the wider Southeast Asian markets this year.

In addition, Kikitrade plans to strengthen its development team to 100 people and deliver more product innovations to bring users a better SocialFi experience. The company also plans to introduce hundreds of key opinion leaders (KOLs), media, and cryptocurrency exchanges’ Chief Executive Officers to the platform to interact with the community, and makes investing ever more interactive and fun.

With this investment, Media Asia will also enter a strategic partnership with Kikitrade, and form a joint venture to launch “Kiki NFT Platform”. With ever richer resources, the joint venture will drive the integration of creative industries and blockchain technology, aiming at building a new era of entertainment for Generation Z.

“The strategic investors introduced this time will enrich Kikitrade’s resources in the ‘social investment’ and Social-Fi avenues, and effectively help Kikitrade expand its international market. We will continue to make it easier for the general public to understand cryptocurrencies and develop a sense of camaraderie in the community, so that crypto investing is no longer lonely,” Sean Tao, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kikitrade,

Kikitrade is a one-stop social investing platform that allows beginners to purchase and manage digital assets at ease. The company was founded in 2020 by Everest Ventures Group (EVG), a Web 3 focused venture studio, and received $12 million in funding after launching in 2021.

Its investors include British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard, renowned blockchain venture capital fund Dragonfly Capital, Co-Founder of Ethereum Joseph Lubin, and Chairman of Head and Shoulders Financial Group Stanley Choi, etc. Animoca Brands, a blockchain game giant with a valuation of more than $5 billion, is Kikitrade’s second largest shareholder. Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, is also the Chairman of Kikitrade’s board of directors.

The Kikitrade community has garnered more than 100 investment analysts, KOLs, cryptocurrency ventures’ Chief Executive Officers, etc, who have been actively sharing unique insights and latest analysis on the social investing platform, making the community one of the most vibrant in Asia.

The company has also reinvented the crypto investing experience by making its platform social-driven. It said “SocialFi” investment model allows the public to gain more benefits through their own social and community influences, such as asking onboarding questions and participating in community voting activities to win tokens or non fungible token (NFT) airdrops, and turns Kikitrade into crypto investors’ go-to place. At present, Kikitrade has served more than 200,000 users from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Australia.

“AppWorks is committed to supporting the most promising startups and helping accelerate their to incremental growth through cross-pollination with our ecosystem of 435 active companies. Kikitrade is built from the ground up based on the founding team’s unique insights on “social investing”. We believe that is the future of finance, not only for cryptocurrencies, but also for the entire spectrum of investment. Kikitrade has a great potential to drive innovation across investing communities,” said Ching Tseng, Web3 Principal of AppWorks.

AppWorks is a venture capital firm and accelerator in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It manages three venture capital funds with a total size of $212 million and is also the world’s second largest institutional investor of FLOW Tokens.

“Media Asia has been achieving breakthrough developments in the fast growing digital entertainment field, which has become a new normal. The Group looks forward to cooperating with Kikitrade to meet the entertainment demands from the new generations, accelerate digitalization, and curate the best virtual entertainment experiences to Asian users,” said CT Yip, Executive Director of Media Asia.

Media Asia, an entertainment group, is a member of Lai Sun Development Company Ltd under the chairmanship of Dr. Peter Lam. Its principal business include artiste management, production and distribution of series of films ,TV programs, music and concerts. The company has recently become a strategic partner with Tencent and established its new media, social commerce and virtual entertainment products.

“Kikitrade is at the forefront of integrating crypto investing with a dedicated social platform. Audeo Ventures is delighted to join hands with world-renowned investors in supporting Kikitrade’s new funding round and is confident in its management’s capacity to materialize their growth plans,” said Pasha Tinkov, Managing Director at Audeo Ventures.

Audeo Ventures is a venture capital firm of a new generation with a global mandate and a focus on early- to mid-stage fintech, consumer tech, and blockchain technology ventures. It is also an investor of a crypto financial services platform BlockFi.

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