Digital Asset Platform Finoa Raises $22M Series A Funding

Finoa, a digital asset platform for institutional investors, has closed a $22 million Series A funding round.

• Finoa, which provides custody and staking to its clients, serves more than 250 firms, such as distribution platform CoinList and Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems, according to an emailed announcement Thursday.
• The Berlin-based firm also supported the mainnet launch of Dapper Labs’ FLOW protocol, the blockchain on which digital collectibles platform NBA Top Shot is built.
• The funding round was led by Balderton Capital, also an early investor in such European startups as Luno (a CoinDesk sister company) and Revolut.
• Finoa has taken advantage of German regulator Bafin’s invitation to regulated financial firms to explore cryptocurrency custody and gain special licenses to do so.
• The firm plans to double down on regulation, earmarking some of the funding for building out its compliance function, according to business development manager Marius Smith.
• “There are a lot of costs associated with the process of becoming a regulated custodian in the German context,” said Smith in an interview. “And who knows, there may be other licenses as well in the future we want to pursue as we become a BaFIN-regulated digital asset banking infrastructure.”
• Finoa plans to layer other blockchain-enabled services on top of its custody base, which could include lending and trading, according to Smith.

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