BONIFACIO GLOBAL CITY, PHILIPPINES – Home-grown startup Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX), announced today that it has raised more than $50 million in funding, led by Tiger Global. Tiger’s investment completes the company’s Series B round of funding, which began with $12.5 million in August 2021.
“PDAX is making crypto more accessible to millions of people in the Philippines. We are excited to back Nichel and the team as they continue to expand the platform and deliver a top-tier customer experience,” said Alex Cook, partner, Tiger Global.
Joining Tiger Global are Kingsway Capital, Jump Capital, Draper Dragon, Oak Drive Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, Ripple and UBX Ventures. Also taking part are early investors Beenext Ventures and Cadenza Capital Management, who led PDAX’s Seed and Series A rounds, respectively, and have continued to support the company.
“The Cadenza team has been excited to work with PDAX since the Series A round and strongly believes that the PDAX platform allows Filipinos to securely access products and services in global crypto markets,” Kumar Dandapani, co-founder and managing partner of Cadenza Capital Management shared.
Dirk Van Quaquebeke added, “It is remarkable to see what PDAX have achieved since our seed round in 2018. We, at BEENEXT, believe the Philippines is just on Day 1 of its journey to create a crypto powerhouse as a country.”
“The Drapers have been early investors in dominant crypto exchanges around the world. Our network crypto fund, Draper Dragon is excited to support PDAX to further the vision of compliant crypto and Web3 adoptions in the rapidly growing Philippines market,” said Andy Tang, partner of Draper Dragon and Draper Associates.
PDAX was founded in 2018 by Chief Executive Officer Nichel Gaba, who believed that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology would not only disrupt the financial services industry, but also revolutionize the way we live.
“Crypto is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet. The Philippines is already seeing applications in play-to-earn games, NFT projects, cross-border remittance, trading and investment,” Gaba said.
Gaba explained that this round of funding will go towards building safe and accessible infrastructure for the digital asset economy, and emphasized the importance of responsible innovation.
“Today, PDAX facilitates the exchange of crypto and fiat currencies, and enables payments in and out of metaverse applications. But there is still a lot of work to be done in building infrastructure. We are in the middle of developments that will continue to make access to digital assets safer, easier and more efficient for everyone.”
“As the space grows, PDAX will continue to work with regulators to ensure that all these innovations protect and create value for users.”
The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) is a BSP-licensed virtual asset service provider, operating a digital asset exchange platform, available on the web and in both iOS and Android. In 2020, PDAX, in partnership with the Bureau of the Treasury and Unionbank, launched Bonds.ph, the world’s first blockchain-enabled app that allows retail investors to invest in retail treasury bonds right from their mobile devices.
