Today U.S. digital asset custody firm BitGo announced it raised a $100 million Series C funding round at a $1.75 billion valuation. The company’s last substantial funding was a $57.5m Series B in 2017/18 that included Goldman Sachs Growth, DRW, Galaxy Digital and others. The company did not identify the latest Series C investors, but CEO Mike Belshe told Bloomberg that they were all new investors from the U.S. and Asia.
BitGo said that it has seen a 60% growth in clients since the start of the year and a 20% increase in assets under custody. It mentioned customers such as Nike, Swan bitcoin and Mysten and it is providing custody for FTX funds in bankruptcy.
On the face of it, BitGo appears to have missed out on some of the bumper funding rounds that took place in 2021/22. For example, Fireblocks raised around $1 billion during that period. Unlike Fireblocks, BitGo is a regulated trust company not purely a technology provider.
But BitGo didn’t miss out because Galaxy Digital agreed to acquire the company for $1.2 billion in May 2021. However, it terminated the deal more than a year later. BitGo sued but the case was dismissed.
This year BitGo made an offer to buy another custodian Prime Trust but dropped the deal after rumors emerged of a shortfall in customer funds. Prime Trust filed for Chapter 11 this week. Belshe said he plans to use the funds for other acquisitions, with two in the pipeline.
Meanwhile, earlier this year Ripple paid $250 million to acquire Metaco, a digital asset custody technology provider that boasts numerous traditional finance partners, including BNP Paribas Securities Services, SocGen Forge and Citi.
