Blockchain firm Biconomy raises $9 million ahead of native token’s launch

Coinbase, Bain Capital, Ledgerprime and others also participated in the round, which comes ahead of its soon-to-be-launched governance token Bico.

Biconomy will use the funds for hiring, product development and launching additional products.

Founded in 2019 by Aniket Jindal, Sachin Tomar and Ahmed Al-Balagh, the company provides software to enable developers to build applications on it. It has raised a total of $10.5 million, including this round.

“The current crypto experience is complicated. Each interaction with a decentralised application is a complicated blockchain transaction that the mainstream users don’t understand,” Jindal said in a statement. “If we are able to simplify these complexities, we believe we will be able to onboard the next billion users into the crypto ecosystem.”

The company is gearing up to launch its native token Bico as part of decentralising its multi-chain infrastructure. The native token, which is planned to be released later this year, will secure the network, enable community governance and incentivise all stakeholders. It is currently integrated with more than 30 applications across five different blockchains.

Jindal told ET that there has been a drastic shift in perception of Indian projects in the past six-eight months following the success of Indian-founded blockchain companies such as Polygon. “There has been a 180-degree change in the perception of global investors in the community. Back then, when we were getting started in ’19, it was so difficult to raise money,” Jindal said.

ET had reported in June that international funds are scooping up early winners as traditional Indian venture capitalists are still warming up to the idea of investing in the crypto and blockchain segment due to the absence of a clear regulatory framework.