New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS): Leading crypto platform CoinSwitch Kuber on Wednesday said it has raised over $260 million in its Series C funding round from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures and existing investors, and will scale its India operations, including hiring across verticals.

With more than 10 million users, CoinSwitch Kuber has become a new unicorn, and the most valuable crypto company in India valued at $1.9 billion.

CoinSwitch Kuber said it will utilise the funds for onboarding 50 million Indians on its platform and introduce new crypto products.

"We wanted to remove all the complexities in crypto trading, educate consumers and give them a simplified experience of one-click buy and sell in crypto, co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal said.

The company said it aims to acquire best talent including leaders and experts across engineering, product, data, and growth to define the crypto industry in India.

With CoinSwitch Kuber, American venture capital form a16z is making its first investment in an Indian start-up. Existing investors Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital India, and Tiger Global also participated in the new funding round.

The company said that it plans to design ways of simplifying the investment journey of Indians, and, in the process, offer multiple avenues of investment for them through different products and asset classes.

"We are incredibly excited about the crypto market opportunity in India, and with its breakout growth, CoinSwitch has emerged as the leading retail platform in the country," Andreessen Horowitz General Partner David George said.

Started in 2017 by Singhal, Govind Soni and Vimal Sagar, CoinSwitch launched its India operations in June 2020.

The Indian cryptocurrency market has been growing exponentially and is expected to reach up to $241 million by 2030 in India and $2.3 billion by 2026 worldwide.