Amber Group raises $300M to recover from FTX contagion

Amber has completed a caller $300 cardinal Series C backing round, led by blockchain-focused task superior institution Fenbushi Capital US, the steadfast announced connected Twitter connected Dec. 15.

The caller backing circular comes arsenic Amber has decided to intermission its erstwhile Series B backing and proceed with Series C alternatively owed to FTX collapse.

Prior to the nonaccomplishment of FTX, Amber was successful process of completing an hold of its Series B astatine a $3 cardinal valuation. As antecedently reported, the institution was readying to rise $100 cardinal arsenic portion of the Series B funding, targeting to implicit the circular by January 2023. As of mid-December 2022, Amber raised $50 cardinal successful the round.

The latest backing from Fenbushi aims to assistance Amber code immoderate of the “significant drawdowns” of Amber’s circumstantial products arsenic an aftermath of the FTX default, the steadfast said.

“That’s wherefore we reacted rapidly to set our fundraising strategy,” Amber noted, adding that the steadfast volition beryllium aso scaling down their wide user efforts and “non-essential concern lines” to absorption connected halfway businesses. As such, Amber has scrapped plans to grow to Europe and the United States, besides ditching immoderate metaverse-related projects.

Amber reiterated that the FTX contagion has not impacted the company’s regular operations contempt Amber having astir 10% of its full trading superior connected FTX astatine the clip of its collapse.

Related: FTX US ex-president reportedly seeks $6M backing to motorboat crypto startup

The institution besides mentioned that it had to laic disconnected immoderate employees owed to the FTX contagion: “These person not been casual decisions, and we, unfortunately, person had to accidental goodbye to galore of our fantabulous colleagues.” According to immoderate reports, Amber laid off more than 40% of its staff successful September and December 2022.

Despite ditching enlargement plans and laying disconnected staff, Amber has not fixed up connected its acquisition ambitions. On Dec. 14, Amber acquired the Singaporean crypto level Sparrow Holdings for an undisclosed amount.

Cryptocurrency trading steadfast Amber Group is taking enactment to mitigate the consequences of trading vulnerability to the bankrupt speech FTX by proactively raising caller funding.