SBI Leads Japanese Bitcoin Exchange’s $27 Million Series C

Japan-based bitcoin exchange bitFlyer has raised 3bn, or just shy of $27m, in a Series C funding round led by Venture Labo Investment and SBI Investment, the venture capital division of financial services conglomerate SBI Group.
The announcement is the latest for bitFlyer, which raised 510m ($4m) as part of a funding round last August that included Dentsu Digital Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital Co and Venture Labo.
In interview, bitFlyer CEO Yuzo Kano indicated that the funding could be used to double the size of the exchange’s 23-person team, currently based in Tokyo and Luxembourg.
Kano said that the funding was due to bitFlyer’s focus on both bitcoin trading and blockchain applications more broadly, telling CoinDesk:

This post was published at Coin Desk on April 25, 2016.