Anchorage Digital ("Anchorage" or the "Company"), the premier digital asset platform for institutions, today announced it has closed a $350 million Series D funding round led by global investment firm KKR.
Participants include Goldman Sachs, Alameda Research, Andreessen Horowitz, Apollo credit funds, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Blockchain Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, Elad Gil, GIC, GoldenTree Asset Management, Innovius Capital, Kraken, Lux Capital, PayPal Ventures, Senator Investment Group, Standard Investments, Thoma Bravo, and Wellington Management. This funding round values Anchorage at over $3 billion.
"As more and more institutions look to add crypto services into their offerings, we find ourselves at an inflection point," said Diogo Mónica, President and Co-Founder of Anchorage Digital, "This funding positions Anchorage Digital to meet the unprecedented institutional demand for this rapidly evolving market. We're grateful that KKR and this wider group of investors shares our vision to expand regulated institutional access to digital assets."
The first crypto-native company to receive a banking charter from the Office of the Comptroller (OCC) in January 2021, Anchorage is making it safe and accessible for institutions to participate in the rapidly evolving digital asset space. Anchorage began as a custodian and has built a robust suite of additional services such as secure trading, financing, staking, and governance.
Anchorage Digital plans to use this latest funding to enhance its infrastructure solutions, specifically for global financial firms and fintech innovators. It will also invest to accelerate and simplify clients' engagement with the latest in crypto innovation and increase the size of its team to continue to expand product offerings and grow its client base.
KKR is investing in Anchorage through its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II, a fund dedicated to growth equity investment opportunities in the technology space. This will be the firm's first direct equity investment in a digital asset company.
"As a pioneer in enabling institutional investors to access digital assets, Anchorage has built a best in class, institutional grade digital asset platform that combines the best practices of both modern security and usability," said Ben Pederson, Senior Leader on KKR's Technology Growth Equity team. "We are thrilled to lead this Series D round and work with Diogo, Nathan and their talented team as they continue to support the institutional adoption of digital assets through their differentiated, regulated and integrated suite of solutions."
"We are certain Anchorage will be a crucial part of the digital asset infrastructure and we are excited to be an investor," said Oli Harris, Head of North America Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs.
Anchorage's Series D funding follows a dynamic year of growth. Significant milestones include:
Receiving a federal banking charter from the OCC
Announcing an $80 million Series C round that was led by GIC and included Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, Lux Capital, and Indico
Facilitating Visa's purchase of one of the most popular series of NFTs, Cryptopunk #7610
Growing headcount by 175% to date in 2021
Business growth in excess of 800% for each of the past two years.