Amber was founded in 2015 and it became fully operational in 2018

Paradigm, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Polychain Capital, and Blockchain.com have participated in the first round

Amber wants to use the funds to expand its operations and add new features to the network

The Hong Kong-based crypto trading startup Amber has secured $28 million in investments in a Series A funding round.

Crypto investment firms Paradigm and Pantera Capital, as well as Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Polychain Capital, and Blockchain.com, have invested in Amber, together with its existing investor Dragonfly Capital. Paradigm and Pantera led the first round.

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The company plans to use the funds to boost its operations and bring new features to its network.

“While the industry has come a long way, there is still plenty of work to do in order to meet the growing demands of clients in a fragmented market,” said Michael Wu, Chief Executive of Amber. “We’re thrilled to partner with some of the world’s leading investors and crypto companies to accelerate our mission of strengthening the crypto finance ecosystem.”

Amber offers its customers various services such as crypto-based electronic market-making, tying market-making, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, electronic sales trading, lending, cash management, as well as other services for corporate investors.

Amber managed to generate $100 million in loans over 6 months and currently has $60 million in outstanding loans with 150% growth on a quarterly basis, said Kullander.

“More and more of these services, they are very synergistic with each other, and hence whilst we can break them down into different business lines now, and track revenue separately, overtime the revenue will be commingled,” he added.

The company also holds a strong position in the crypto venture investment world, where there are not many middle-stage firms with clear business formats and the capacity to increase revenue.

“As market liquidity further bifurcates among sophisticated dealers and client-facing broker in a fully electronic market, Amber plays a huge rule by enabling clients to trade across fragmented crypto markets through a single software interface,” Arjun Balaji, an investment partner at Paradigm said.

The crypto finance startup started operating in 2015 as a side project of four Morgan Stanley traders and one Bloomberg LP developer. The company became fully operational in January 2018 and started making profit two months later, Amber co-founder Tiantian Kullander said.