BitKan’s Second Funding Round Successful
BitKan, a Chinese data service provider for cryptocurrencies, announced on Friday that its second funding round – the Series B funding – had successfully raised another $10 million for the company.
The company had previously raised a small angel round of about $300,000 in 2015, however, its first major round of funding – the Series A funding – took place the next year in 2016.
Investors in this round of funding included the Chinese financing company, Zhongyunhui Capital, IDG Capital and bitcoin mining giant Bitmain. This is not the first time that Bitmain is investing in BitKan. The company was one of the first investors in the data service provider in 2016, investing $1.6 million in the startup.
BitKan was one of China’s most well-known cryptocurrency (especially Bitcoin) data websites and OTC trading option providers for the past 4 years until 2017. Unfortunately, the Chinese government then cracked down heavily on the cryptocurrency market, issuing stringent warnings against ICOs. It was at this time, that companies related to ICOs as well as crypto trading shut shop in China and moved their operations overseas.
BitKan was one such company that moved a part of its operations out of China.
Growth Plans
BitKan terminated its OTC operations in China but continued to run its news, data and wallet services out of Shenzhen. The company now runs its OTC and crypto operations globally from Hong Kong and Singapore while it still maintains its headquarters in Shenzhen in China. The data service provider is planning to expand its operations to Tokyo, Japan in the near future.
BitKan stated that it is planning to use this round of funding to expand the reach of its new social network hub called K Site. Other products such as BitKan’s E-wallet and its data analysis division will also be developed with this funding.
The data service provider is also planning to use a part of these funds to expand to more countries as fast as possible. The company already has more than 1 million registered users, of which more than 40% are located outside China.
K Site Blockchain Project
According to Yu Fang, the Chief Executive Officer of BitKan, a part of the $10 million that has been raised in this latest round of funding will be used for the development, operation and promotion of its key blockchain project, K Site.
K Site is the company’s new media decentralized application (DApp) and is the new feature that is going to be embedded in the main BitKan app. This app will host multiple groups depending on users’ interests. It will also be a platform for quality content such as micro-blogs, articles, videos and even Q&A sessions. Users will be charged a small fee to join various groups in K Site.
And while K Site has its own cryptocurrency token called KAN, the company is not planning to launch an ICO for this token. According to the company, they are going to raise money for this platform the traditional way, rather than through an ICO.