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South Africa-founded cryptocurrency exchange Luno has been acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG), a global company that builds, buys and invests in blockchain companies.
Luno is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Africa, and now has five million clients in more than 40 countries, along with 400 employees based in London, Singapore, and South Africa.
Digital Currency Group is based in New York and owns a broad portfolio of cryptocurrency companies, including CoinDesk, Genesis, Foundry, and Grayscale Investments.
Its founder and CEO is Bitcoin investor and entrepreneur Barry Silbert, who is among the world’s richest entrepreneurs in the cryptocurrency industry.
“We are proud to have supported Luno as an early investor, and we recognize a shared commitment to building mission-driven businesses that can help transform traditional financial services and enhance economic freedom for people around the world.” Silbert said.
“Luno is a high-growth global business and there is a great opportunity to expand organically and through acquisitions.”
DCG will make a substantial commitment to expand Luno globally following this acquisition. The finanacial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
The group first invested in Luno in their seed round in 2013.
Luno was also backed by global tech giant Naspers Group and Rand Merchant Investments, which said they sold their stakes in Luno to DCG.
Luno will continue under Swanepoel
DCG said it enables its subsidiaries to operate as independent companies, providing leadership, partnership and investment capital to help scale businesses.
This means that Luno’s leadership team will remain intact and co-founder and CEO Marcus Swanepoel will lead the acquisition efforts in his role as CEO.
“The past seven years have been an incredibly exciting journey for Luno, helping millions of our clients gain access to crypto for the first time,” said Swanepoel.
“DCG has been an integral part of Luno’s history during this time, and we have been fully aligned with our vision and culture from day one.”
“Having the full support of DCG just as we are experiencing a crucial time of growth in the industry is not only an important and exciting milestone for Luno, but more importantly, it will significantly accelerate our ability to achieve our goal of helping update one. 1 billion people to a better financial system by 2030, ”said Swanepoel.
Luno maintains key regional offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Kuala Lumpur, Lagos and Jakarta and said it will continue to focus on existing geographies where it operates in Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia.
The cryptocurrency exchange has developed an aggressive roadmap for future growth and ultimately aims to compete with financial services companies globally.
Now read: Luno expands to Australia
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