Anchorage is Portugal’s 7th unicorn

Portugal has its 7th unicorn. The crypto assets company Anchorage has raised €300 million.

The San Francisco company, which was founded by Diogo Mónica and Nathan McCauley, and has achieved the status of a company which is worth over €1Bn, has just completed the Series D investment round which was led by the US fund KKK.
It is an investment that means that the company is now valued at €2.7Bn (US$3Bn). Anchorage is also the first ever unicorn in the crypto assets area of Portuguese origin.
KKK is currently in the process of buying Telecom Italia and could be a potential buyer of Altice Portugal and its brand MEO.
Other investors in the D round were Andreessen Horowitz, Wellington Management, Apollo and the investment bank Goldman Sachs.
It was also helped by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, blockchain Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, Elad Gil, GIC, Golden Tree Asset Management, Innovius Capital, Kraken, Lux Capital, PayPal Ventures, Senator Investment Group, Standard Investments, Thoma Bravo and Wellington Management.
Anchorage also has Portuguese capital through Indico Capital Management, a VC managed by ex-Talkdesk founder Cristina Fonseca and ex-Caixa Capital manager Stephan Morais. Indico had participated in the company’s Series C investment round which was carried out at the start of this year and form which Anchorage netted €71 million (US$80).
“As more and more institutions look to add crypto services into their offerings, we find ourselves at an inflection point,” said Diogo Mónica, President and Co-Founder of Anchorage Digital.
“This funding positions Anchorage Digital to meet the unprecedented institutional demand for this rapidly evolving market. We’re grateful that KKR and this wider group of investors shares our vision to expand regulated institutional access to digital assets.”
The first crypto-native company to receive a banking charter from the Office of the Comptroller (OCC) in January 2021, Anchorage is making it safe and accessible for institutions to participate in the rapidly evolving digital asset space. Anchorage began as a custodian and has built a robust suite of additional services such as secure trading, financing, staking, and governance.
Anchorage Digital plans to use this latest funding to enhance its infrastructure solutions, specifically for global financial firms and fintech innovators. It will also invest to accelerate and simplify clients’ engagement with the latest in crypto innovation and increase the size of its team to continue to expand product offerings and grow its client base.
KKR is investing in Anchorage through its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II, a fund dedicated to growth equity investment opportunities in the technology space. This will be the firm’s first direct equity investment in a digital asset company.
“As a pioneer in enabling institutional investors to access digital assets, Anchorage has built a best in class, institutional grade digital asset platform that combines the best practices of both modern security and usability,” said Ben Pederson, Senior Leader on KKR’s Technology Growth Equity team. “We are thrilled to lead this Series D round and work with Diogo, Nathan and their talented team as they continue to support the institutional adoption of digital assets through their differentiated, regulated and integrated suite of solutions.”
“We are certain Anchorage will be a crucial part of the digital asset infrastructure and we are excited to be an investor,” said Oli Harris, Head of North America Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs.