CoinSwitch Kuber may enter stock trading, appoints ex-Paytm SVP Krishna Hegde for new initiatives

CoinSwitch Kuber, a cryptocurrency exchange, which hit a $1.9 billion valuation earlier this month, may foray into stock trading soon, as a part of its plan to diversify its financial services portfolio, top sources privy to the development told the Business Today.in. 

The diversification of its investment services portfolio comes at a time when the Indian equity markets have seen record number of retail investors trading on the exchanges since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The markets' bull run has also invoked interest from the startup ecosystem with a bunch of unicorns already offering stock trading services on their platform.

Also Read: CoinSwitch Kuber is India's second crypto unicorn after $260 mn funding

Business Today.in earlier reported that another investment tech unicorn, Groww may foray into crypto trading too subject to clarity around the regulations on the digital tokens.

Despite countries like China imposing ban on virtual currencies, India has doubled down on the investments in cryptocurrencies with the trading volumes and investor numbers at peak levels this year.

Crypto startup, CoinSwitch Kuber has roped in ex-Paytm Senior Vice President, Krishna Hegde who will play a pivotal role in expanding the business beyond crypto and integrating traditional financial products on the platform.

The crypto exchange recently raised $260 million in Series C funding from Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in September 2021 to become India's most valued crypto Unicorn at a valuation of $1.9 billion. The company said that it intends to utilise the freshly raised funds for diversification into new asset classes.

"We are in our growth phase and strive to build innovative financial products in crypto and beyond that make investments easier. We aim to bring financial well-being to every Indian and make money equal for all," said Ashish Singhal, Co-founder & CEO, CoinSwitch Kuber.

Also Read: CoinSwitch Kuber onboards Ranveer Singh as brand ambassador after CoinDCX roped in Amitabh Bachchan

"With his extensive knowledge of the industry and history of building innovative financial offerings for the digital native consumers, Krishna will play a critical role in helping us get closer to this goal. I am glad to have him as a part of the CoinSwitch Kuber team as we continue to expand into new areas of business," he added.

Hegde has conceptualised, built and scaled several innovative offerings including Digital Gold - the de-facto mechanism for millions of young Indians to make their first gold investment, at Paytm, where he was a Senior Vice President. 

He also led a team to launch other successful offerings including Paytm Postpaid, among other lending and insurance products at the digital payments firm. Most recently, Hegde served as Head of Strategy at Setu, where he launched an industry-first product that enabled easy and broad distribution of bank fixed deposits outside bank platforms, according to an official statement from CoinSwitch Kuber.

"The Indian crypto industry is currently ripe for innovations and I am excited to join CoinSwitch Kuber, the leading and most valued crypto company in the country. I am excited to use my expertise to innovate on a variety of crypto and non-crypto products that bring CoinSwitch Kuber closer to our goal of enabling Indians to build wealth," said Krishna Hegde, Senior Vice President - New Initiatives.