A Japanese Crypto Startup Says It’s Hit a Rare $1 Billion Valuation

(Bloomberg) -- Liquid Group Inc., a Tokyo-based crypto-currency trading platform, put out a press release Wednesday that it had raised venture funds at a valuation in excess of $1 billion, making it one of the rare so-called unicorns in Japan.

The startup has secured funding from investors including venture fund IDG Capital and crypto mining giant Bitmain Technologies Ltd., it said in the statement, but in a somewhat unusual step didn’t disclose how much money it had taken in. Liquid has commitments for about $50 million, according to a person familiar with the matter, a relatively small amount for such a lofty valuation. Startup valuations are viewed skeptically if the amount of capital raised is less than 10 percent.

That’s not to take away from Liquid’s progress in building its business, including securing a coveted crypto-exchange license from Japan’s financial watchdog and handling more than $50 billion in cumulative trading volume. IDG is also a marquee investor, having funded crypto startups such as Coinbase Inc. and Bitmain.

Crypto startups have a history of pushing aggressive valuations. In June, Circle Internet Financial Ltd. raised $110 million, valuing the mobile payments and crypto trading platform at $3 billion. Coinbase raised $100 million in 2017 at a valuation of $1.6 billion. Non-crypto startups tend to raise more money in their unicorn rounds.

Liquid, founded in 2014 and previously known as Quoine, raised the latest funds as part of its on-going Series C round. Co-founders Mike Kayamori and Mario Gomez Lozada had raised more than $20 million in prior rounds from investors including Jafco Co. Separately, they raised $100 million through an initial coin offering in 2017.

The new funding will be used for global expansion and comes amid rising optimism that last year’s brutal correction for crypto assets is coming to an end. Bitcoin has jumped more than 20 percent this week to its highest in five months.

Japan has few startups that reach a $1 billion valuation before their initial public offerings, as loose listing rules make it easy for founders to go public sooner than in other countries. The nation was home to just one unicorn as of January -- artificial intelligence developer Preferred Networks Inc. -- compared with 165 in the U.S. and 90 in China, according to the latest data from research firm CB Insights.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuji Nakamura in Tokyo at ynakamura56@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Robert Fenner

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