Coinbase Invests in Middle Eastern Crypto Exchange Rain Financial
2 min readRain Financial, a Middle Eastern crypto platform, has raised $6 million from Coinbase and others in a Series A funding round.
Middle East Venture Partners was the lead investor, with other participants, including Coinbase, Vision Ventures, and DIFC Fintech Fund. Rain Financial raised a total of $6 million but did not disclose the final valuation.
Coinbase Makes it Rain
Rain is the first licensed cryptocurrency platform in the Middle East and has been approved by the Central Bank of Bahrain. It will use the funding for regional expansion and bolstering its engineering team.
The company’s co-founder, Yehia Badaway, said in an interview that the region was seeing a boost in registrations and transaction volumes. These users include institutions, professional investors, and retail clients. It operates in over 50 countries, with North Africa being its next major market after the Middle East.
Rain has raised a total of $17.9 million, with the previous funding round raising $9 million in December 2020. The company is positioning itself to be the dominant player in the region, which could be lucrative as regulation improves.
Bahrain is one of the most crypto-focused among Middle Eastern nations. Since last year, officials have been deliberating the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, hoping to make the nation a booming cryptocurrency hub.
A Bet on Middle Eastern Markets
Coinbase evidently sees potential in Rain’s operations as well. While largely used by Americans, the exchange has been focusing on its global presence, threatened by the likes of other major exchanges like Binance.
The exchange’s investment arm, Coinbase Ventures, has invested in several notable companies, including Compound, Dharma, Dapper Labs, Etherscan, and Messari. Most recently, it invested in a tax reporting tool service TaxBit.
Coinbase itself is valued at $75 billion, last raising $300 million in a Series E funding round in 2018. The company is set to launch its hotly anticipated IPO, which Messari says is worth in the neighborhood of $28 billion.
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