The Swiss crypto bank raised 20 million Swiss francs ($23 million) to expand in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Wealth manager Julius Baer was among the original investors to stump up again.
The Zug-based start-up won the capital top-up from investors in Switzerland, Europe, and Asia, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The money will be used towards strengthening capital, boosting lending, and pushing into Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and wider Europe.
Seba, which started in 2019 with 100 million francs, is the third crypto firm to tap its investors for more, following Sygnum and Bitcoin Suisse earlier this year. It will tokenize the shares from this fundraising after a new blockchain law in Switzerland comes into effect in February, it said.
Boardroom Shuffle
Seba is keen to push into lending as well as tokenization – both balance sheet-intensive activities. Seba’s regulator, Finma, required the bank to take in at least half of the funding from Swiss investors, finews.com reported in September. A spokeswoman for Julius Baer confirmed the bank had pitched in funding, but declined to detail the amount or size of its stake in Seba.
The financing caps an eventful year for Seba: Chairman Andreas Amschwand threw in the towel in July over a strategy dispute. Paivi Rekonen, a former UBS and Credit Suisse banker with technology experience as well, took over. Another director, Singapore’s Goh Jin Hian, bowed out quietly amid a scandal at home.
