Safello secures funding for IPO

The company said it is working towards a stock listing in the first half of next year. To achieve this, the exchange issued new shares to the tune of SEK million ($1.3 million) to cover listing costs.

Safello CEO and co-founder Frank Schuli said the IPO is the opportunity for the exchange to grow and bring more transparency to an industry that the mainstream finance world is yet to understand or accept.

“The primary purpose of the IPO is to strengthen our growth opportunities further, which can hopefully contribute to increased transparency and shed light on a traditionally misunderstood industry,” said Schuli.

“We plan to broaden our product portfolio and foresee a potential expansion abroad in the near future,” he added.

It's been quite the journey from 2013 when the price of #Bitcoin was around $100. Now Bitcoin hit $23k and we take our own next step. A big thanks to my amazing team @SafelloAB! 🚀

Safello Announces IPO Plans in First Half of 2021 https://t.co/TNK6J7tOYO via @cision

— FrankSchuil (@FrankSchuil) December 18, 2020

The exchange provides its services only to European residents. It offers support for BTC, Ether, and XRP. 

The funding round was led by Digital Currency Group (DCG), a New York City-based crypto venture firm founded by Wall Street veteran Barry Silbert, who invested in the exchange since its early days.

“We first invested in Safello in 2014 and have been impressed with the company’s growth and perseverance throughout the years. We are excited to support Safello in the next phase of development and their desire to go public,” said DCG CEO Silbert.

Other venture firms with stakes in the exchange include Northzone, White Star Capital, and Techstars.

The exchange hired corporate finance firm Corpura Fondkommission as financial advisor and the law firms Schjødt and Kassai Law were brought in as legal advisors to help with the listing.

“We see significant interest in the crypto segment in its entirety – and in Safello as a company in particular. This is evident as the issue was oversubscribed to SEK 48 million, which corresponds to a subscription rate of almost 500 percent,” said  Corpura Fondkommission partner Carl Kindal.

The exchange has remained mum about the details of the listing. Safello’s IPO plans come at a time when U.S. exchange Coinbase filed its preliminary IPO papers with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).

More about Safello

The exchange was registered with the financial regulator the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in 2013. Per the press release, the exchange has 165,000 customers and a trading volume of more than SEK 800 million ($96 million).

The company reached profitability levels in 2019. Safello has extended its product offerings by introducing new services such as Safello Business, which allows the company to broaden its service offering from private individuals to corporate clients.