Mexican Crypto Trading Platform Bitso Looking to Expand Through Latin America

Bitso – a cryptocurrency exchange backed by Ripple – has completed a funding round that saw more than $62 million raised for the trading platform. The round was led by some of the largest venture capital firms out there including QED Investors and Kaszek Ventures.

Bitso is based in Mexico, and the company has announced that it plans to use the money it’s earned to expand its horizons across all Latin America, which is becoming a heavy hub for crypto activity in recent years. Particularly, Bitso wants to establish a presence in Brazil, which it says offers a high level of potential for cryptocurrency. It had previously launched a new office within the country earlier this year and wants to ensure activity grows in the nation.

As it stands, Bitso has passed one million customers in the past few weeks, suggesting just how big the trading platform has become. One of the major services its looking to introduce soon is a remittance payment service for individuals who are working abroad and need to send money home to their families. Chief executive and co-founder Daniel Vogel explained in a recent interview:

We’re looking to provide access to financial products in a similar way to a bank. The level of access to traditional financial services in these regions is low and the prospect of using cryptocurrency and stable coins for cross border remittance attracted Kaszek and QED.

At the time of writing, it is believed that as much as 70 percent of Latin American citizens do not have access to bank accounts or traditional financial services and products. Nicolas Szekasky – co-founder and managing partner of Kaszek Ventures in Brazil – mentions:

Crypto has more opportunity in regions like Latin America than the U.S. where the banking infrastructure is more sophisticated. We’ve been looking into the space for years and we have strong conviction that Bitso is the way to go.

This marks the first time that both Kaszek and QED have ventured into crypto territory and invested in such a company. Nigel Morris – a co-founder and managing partner at QED – commented:

QED has long kept a pulse on the crypto market and Bitso in particular. The power crypto has to disrupt and innovate traditional financial services is inexorable and we look forward to using our operating knowledge and expertise to help Bitso achieve exactly that.