Cryptocurrency bank hires 50 in Portugal after 65 million investment
Dinheiro Vivo
· 25 Feb 2021
The financial startup Anchorage will hire 50 people in Portugal over the next two years. The banks' front door to cryptocurrencies just announced an investment round in the C series of $ 80 million (€ 65.8 million). Led by Portuguese Diogo Mónica, this fintech obtained the first bank license for cryptocurrencies in the United States, in January.
"This new round of investment will allow us to scale quickly, to respond to the growing demand for participation in the space of digital assets, particularly among companies and traditional financial institutions", points out Diogo Mónica, quoted in a press release.
Of the 75 people working at Anchorage, 15 are currently in Porto. The company had already planned to recruit at least 15 more elements for 2021, mainly for engineering roles. For 2022, another 35 employees are expected to join. The Porto office is focused on product development and engineering.
Anchorage is expected to open a second office in Portugal, probably in Lisbon. The definitive location of this space will only be closed in a few months. This fintech has headquarters in San Francisco (California) and also has an office in the state of South Dakota.
With the $ 80 million series C, Anchorage received more money than the investment raised in the previous two rounds, totaling $ 57 million.
This was possible thanks to the entry of new investors, such as the Portuguese venture capital company Indico Capital Partners and the Singapore sovereign wealth fund (known as GIC). A16z venture capital companies, Blockchain Capital and Lux also entered this operation.
The expansion of blockchain technology is not a bet on Bitcoin, as much is said; it is a change of computational paradigm, a revolution equivalent to the appearance of personal computers, the Internet or smartphones. Everything is going to change in the next decade and Anchorage has the conditions to be one of the big global companies in the new financial sector that is being invented now", predicts the leader of Indico Capital Partners, Stephan Morais.
Through this fintech, any bank can create products with more than 100 cryptocurrencies. In addition, Anchorage's solution allows you to save cryptocurrencies or even open term deposit accounts.
Earlier this month, Anchorage launched a pilot project with Visa for the payments company to be able to integrate features such as bitcoin and other digital currencies into the range of services, in 2021.
