Tallinn-headquartered crypto exchange Utorg raised $5 million in a round led by US fund Dragon Fly with participation from Hypra and TA Ventures, two funds with Ukrainian roots.
Completed in September but publicly announced only recently, the deal valued the startup at $50 million, Forbes Ukraine heard from an unnamed source.
Founded in October 2020, Utorg is the brainchild of Artem Barannyk and Daniel Stolberg, two Ukrainian entreprepreneurs, and Eugene Petrakov, a Russian from Kaliningrad who serves as CEO.
In an exchange with Forbes Ukraine, Stolberg said that Petrakov was living and working in Ukraine when the war broke out, and is now in the process of receiving Israeli citizenship.
Touting itself as “a crypto exchange infrastructure [that] delivers а top-notch user experience,” Utorg allows users to easily buy a crypto currency with a bank card, exchange a crypto currency against a fiat currency, and exchange a crypto currency against another crypto currency.
The company says it holds PCI DSS Level 2 certification as well as Estonian and Lithuanian licenses to provide its services, with plans to receive additional licenses in other jurisdictions, according to Forbes Ukraine.
A part of the funds raised in September have been used to develop a decentralized crypto exchange app, the company told Forbes Ukraine. This product will allow users to keep custody of their crypto assets, in contrast with many other exchanges which have been increasingly exposed to distrust since the fall of FTX in November.
Other features of the new app include “digital wallets, fiat bridges, a widget to make transfers through third-party apps and websites,” as well as “integrations with NFT tokens and interest-generative savings accounts for storing crypto,” reports Tech.eu.
Sources:
https://tech.eu/2022/12/16/utrog/
https://forbes.ua/ru/innovations/ukrainskiy-kriptoobminnik-utorg-zaluchiv-5-mln-vid-dragonfly-ta-ventures-i-hypra-chomu-z-pershogo-raundu-yogo-otsinili-pid-50-mln-07122022-10310
