Latin American Crypto Firm Ripio Raises $50M to Accelerate Regional Expansion

Ripio, an Argentina-based crypto company, has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round, the firm announced Monday.

The round was led by blockchain investment firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) and included two other previous investors, Tim Draper and San Mateo incubator Boost VC. DCG is the parent company of CoinDesk.

The funds will be primarily earmarked to open Ripio operations in Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay in 2021, Chief Brand Officer Juan José Mendez told CoinDesk, adding that the company will start operating in Spain in the first quarter of 2022.

Expansions into new markets will be done both organically and through acquisitions, Mendez said. In the coming weeks, the company plans to announce the acquisition of an exchange in Colombia, Mendez added.

In January, Ripio acquired BitcoinTrade, the second-largest crypto exchange in Brazil.

Ripio currently operates in Argentina and Brazil, where it has collectively reached two million users, according to the company.

The Series B funding round included new investors such as Amplo VC; Marcos Galperin, founder and CEO of Latin American marketplace MercadoLibre; and Martín Migoya, founder and CEO of software company Globant.

“This round is a natural step forward that allows us to continue building and expanding our products in the region, with the mission of broadening access to the crypto world, creating simple tools and offering quality educational resources for getting to know the crypto space,” Sebastián Serrano, co-founder and CEO of Ripio, said in a statement.

Ripio’s last round was a $2.25 million Series A in 2017, according to Mendez.

Ripio owns an app, an exchange and an over-the-counter (OTC) desk. The company is working on launching a business-to-business vertical with blockchain solutions for companies, a payments vertical and a decentralized finance (DeFi) vertical, Mendez said, without specifying details.

In addition, Mendez said Ripio plans to expand its credit vertical already available in Argentina to all of Latin America.

CORRECTION (Sept. 21: 16:24 UTC): Corrected to reflect that Ripio acquired BitcoinTrade in January, not June.