Coins.ph execs, investors back Finblox

Angel investors including key people behind Philippines-based coins.ph chipped in for a funding round that raised more than $1 million to support cryptocurrency investment startup Finblox.

The Hong Kong-based firm—the name of which is derived from “finance” and “blockchain”—intends to deploy the funds raised to build a global footprint that is initially focused on Southeast Asia.

“Our vision is to help the next one billion people build their wealth with crypto,” Finblox chief executive Peter Hoang said in a statement.

Among the investors that took part in the funding round for Finblox is Ron Hose, founder of Philippines-based coins.ph—touted as Southeast Asia’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, with more than 16 million users. The other founder of Fixblox, Dmitriy Paunin, used to be chief technology officer of coins.ph.

Hoang said Finblox enables investors from over 180 countries to invest into cryptocurrency, and empowers them to hold the assets long-term with the savings product.

“What we’re able to offer is stability with more consistent rates and no lock-in periods associated with other DeFi platforms,” he added. “Our core focus is to build an accessible and modern product that will help our users accumulate wealth over the long term and build the financial blocks for their future.”

By “DeFi,” Hoang was referring to decentralized finance, a business ecosystem in which software written on blockchains act as an intermediary between buyers and sellers as well as lenders and borrowers —in lieu of “middlemen” such as banks and brokerages.

Finblox’s funding round attracted investors that include Sequoia Capital India, MSA Capital, Venturra Discovery, Coinfund, Saison Capital, Ratio Ventures and First Check Ventures.

Finblox describes its platform as “a high-yield savings app powered by the digital assets”—meaning that users are able to earn yield on their idle crypto holdings such as Bitcoin and USDC stablecoin. INQ