Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal have been friends since their college days and are passionate about exploring emerging technologies. They both attended the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, where they had cryptography classes and immersed themselves in other new-age technologies.

As their passion grew further, they aspired to establish their own startup to tap into India’s untapped and underserved cryptocurrency market.

Their relentless pursuit led to the co-founding of CoinDCX.

Established in 2018 and headquartered in Mumbai, CoinDCX is a cryptocurrency exchange focused on making crypto accessible to the masses. It offers users innovative products and features backed by “industry-leading” security processes and insurance protection. The projects on the platform are listed only after appropriate due diligence through its’ 7M principles‘.

Currently, the platform has over 12.5 million users.

Also Read: ‘I have seen the future, and it works.’ But is it Web3?

In addition to the crypto exchange, CoinDCX also runs several education and awareness programmes for crypto enthusiasts. For instance, its DCXLearn provides a full-fledged crypto learning platform with courses on crypto and blockchain.

In April, CoinDCX announced the completion of its oversubscribed Series D investment round of over US$135 million. Pantera Capital and Steadview Capital co-led the round, with participation from Kingsway, DraperDragon, Republic, Kindred, B Capital Group, Coinbase, Polychain, and Cadenza.

CoinDCX aims to grow its existing business/platforms and focus on nurturing India’s crypto and Web3 industry with the latest funding.

An arduous journey

Gupta told e27 that their journey was challenging as they faced several hurdles right from the outset. “Around the time we started CoinDCX, India’s central bank, the RBI, directed banks to stop trading with crypto companies. This discouraged investors from investing in us and left us without the funds critical to our existence,” said Co-Founder and CEO Sumit Gupta. “However, we preserved and worked tirelessly to keep the company operational. After the reversal of the ban, our investors came back.

India has had a hot-and-cold relationship with digital currencies. While in 2018, it imposed a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies, in February 2022, the government decided to formally recognise crypto trading while also discouraging it by imposing a heavy levy on transactions. This often created confusion in the market.

“The governmental support is critical for digital assets to reach their full potential and impact its digital economy. The first step in any regulatory regime is to accept and acknowledge the emergence of a new asset class. In India, we saw that happen when the government classified crypto as virtual digital assets,” Gupta maintained.

“We believe this is a step in the right direction. Furthermore, digital assets were given greater legitimacy when included in the government’s overall taxation framework, a milestone in recognising crypto,” Gupta said.

Barring the government flip-flops on crypto trading, India offers several favourable factors to become a fast-growing crypto market. According to Gupta, the country has greatly surprised market watchers with the rapid adoption of digital assets in recent years.

“Despite the regulatory back-and-forths happening in the market, India still ranked second on the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index. This speaks about the strength of the market – its demographics, strength in technology and a general willingness by the Indian population to explore crypto,” he noted.

As the local crypto adoption grows, it will open tremendous opportunities for related industries such as Web3. According to Rajan Anandan, MD at Sequoia Capital, India represents excellent potential for web3 startups.

CoinCDX intends to tap into this opportunity and recently launched CoinDCX Ventures. The VC arm’s mandate is to nurture the crypto and Web3 industry in India and beyond, hoping to serve as the country’s gateway to the broader international crypto ecosystem that has already been established.

Also Read: Breaking the bro code: How women are taking over the Web3 world in Asia

The startup also sees big potential for the metaverse gaming domain but has no immediate plans to venture into it.

“We continuously see an influx of unique, creative and innovative collaborations between business, technology, fashion, sport and art, particularly as lines between physical and digital worlds become increasingly blurred,” Gupta said. “While we have no concrete plans to enter the gaming market, for now, it is something we might consider in the future. The crypto and blockchain industry is proliferating, with innovations disrupting the space every day. CoinDCX wants to be at its forefront, spearheading the charge towards a new digital future where finance is increasingly decentralised,” he signed off.

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Omnistream, a fast-growing data-empowered solutions company for the retail industry, has raised US$7 million in Series A funding.

SIG Venture Capital led the round, with participation from Delivery Hero Ventures, Spiral Ventures and Wavemaker Partners.

The new funding will allow Singapore-based Omnistream to scale the business globally and add more than 50 new roles to the team by the end of 2022.

Founded in 2018, Omnistream helps retailers optimise their physical footprint by generating store-level planograms that optimise assortments for hyperlocal demand resulting in material uplifts in sales.

Also Read: How do investors evaluate SaaS companies?

The SaaS firm provides solutions for large retailers across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, deploying in 8,500+ retail locations. Its retail customers include supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, and online grocery operators.

Wendy Chen, Founder and CEO of Omnistream, commented: “As shoppers become more discerning, Omnistream empowers retailers to provide a superior customer experience that includes a more tailored product assortment, fewer stock-outs, and less waste across the retail supply chain.”

Brendon Blacker, Managing Partner of Delivery Hero Ventures, said: “Delivery Hero operates one of the world’s largest networks of dark stores for grocery delivery. We immediately saw the potential for Delivery Hero to work with Omnistream to drive incremental sales and operational efficiencies for our online grocery business. The company’s mission-driven focus also resonated with our core value to create a more sustainable food and grocery industry.”

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The well-known adage “culture eats strategy for breakfast” doesn’t just refer to the culture created in an office. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that remote working, whether hybrid or company-wide, is here to stay.

But companies are still struggling to stem the tide of employee burnout that’s directly tied to remote working conditions.

Here are Cake’s top tips for keeping remote teams engaged long past the end of the pandemic, whenever that may be.

Offer work from home perks

The small things add up and make a workplace feel more like home. So how do you transition these perks when your employees are literally working from their own homes? They’ve already got their tea, coffee and meals sorted, so you might need to think outside the box.

Companies like Employment Hero offer (in their language) Hero Dollars which provide access to discounts and Employment Hero’s online marketplace with reduced prices on thousands of everyday items. Not bad, right?

Instead of a gym membership, consider organising Zoom yoga classes, learning and development opportunities or have some tasty treats delivered to your team members’ doors. From cookies to DIY cake mix, the culinary world is your oyster.

Make play a priority

This might sound like a fluffy suggestion but hear us out.

Working remotely can be super isolating. Team members miss out on day-to-day gags with their co-workers; impromptu moments of surprise and delight! There are no banana peels to slip on or ping pong games to dust off the cobwebs. And gifs over Slack are fun but might not always cut the mustard.

Believe it or not, these little moments of play and connection are often the difference between what makes us stay or leave an organisation, whether we realise it or not.

Also Read: How to successfully onboard your remote team in the virtual world

Creating social events online that have absolutely nothing to do with work and everything to do with creativity and play brings teams together. It generates innovation by providing much-needed breaks from one’s day-to-day responsibilities.

Try a Zoom drawing or painting class, dance session or talent contest. How incredible would it be to see Sally from accounts play the guitar? Or Gary, the developer, does the splits? Talk about a bonding session.

Remember to include remote workers

This is particularly important if you have a blended working environment. That is, some workers at home and some at the office. When most of the team is in-situ, it’s easy to forget the few participating in cyberspace.

If you treat employees as “out of sight out of mind”, the results they produce are likely to nosedive and, worse, you might see them look for an environment that considers how to manage their remote needs better.

Some easy ways to include your remote team are:

• Invite them to events in the office
• Organise team lunches to attend
• Offer them alternative perks (see above!)
• Ensure office technology is set up in a way that is remote-friendly (i.e. big screens for meetings and speakers to ensure everyone can hear)

Reward team members with equity

Set up an Employee Stock Option Plan. Potential ownership of a slice of the company means employees start thinking like business owners. It’s common to see a spike in collaboration, productivity, and innovation when teams are incentivised with equity.

The Cake platform tracks vesting and automatically updates team members each time they achieve a vesting milestone. Yahoo!

Transparency on the Cake platform makes equity feel more tangible and means you don’t need to keep track (and keep reminding) of your team when their equity vests.

You may not be physically present with your team members. Still, when they see their equity vesting over time, they’ll be reminded their hard work is paying off, keeping them connected and energised to achieve the company goals and mission.

Encourage career development opportunities

According to Employment Hero, 1:1 feedback sessions can play a vital part in developing your individual team members:

“89 per cent of HR leaders agree that ongoing peer feedback and check-ins are key for successful outcomes? So with this statistic front of mind, it’s never been more crucial to pencil in some time with your remote workers. When you have honest conversations with your direct reports, you increase trust. And when trust is built, employee engagement improves.”

A significant part of any employee lifecycle is discussing room for professional growth, development and opportunities. What better way to do this than during scheduled time, dedicated to individual employees weekly or monthly.

Also Read: Top 3 signs your business will need a remote tech team

Arguably, remote workers need this dedicated attention more than those workers feeding off the buzz in the office. So, hop to and start scheduling those Zoom meetings!

Begin the week with team check-ins

Many companies start the week with team huddles or meetings to set priorities for the week ahead. But how many teams take 10 minutes to ‘check in’ on a personal level before getting into the nitty-gritty of work?

So what is a “check-in”?

Each team member receives two-three uninterrupted minutes to let the rest of the team know:

• Their energy level out of 10: In a remote environment, energy levels wax and wane, and it’s important to know where your team is at. If someone’s at a 10, you’ll know it’s all systems go, and you can safely stretch them out of their comfort zone. If they’re at a 3, you know to be a little more gentle with them that week.
• Anything that’s distracting them: This could be anything from anxiety about a pending work project to waiting to hear about an offer they’ve made on a rental property, or maybe someone has proposed to their partner, and their mind is buzzing with romance and excitement! It’s a great way to connect with the team on important life events and understand where their focus, beyond work, might be pulling them. If you’re a team of less than 10, it’s possible to do a company-wide check-in. If you’re larger than 10, it may be wise to break the Monday check-ins into smaller groups or break out rooms.
• Their top 3 goals or priorities for the week should relate specifically to work. Getting each team member to articulate and record their goals in a small group setting, fresh-faced on a Monday, not only helps teams stay accountable to each other but can help the less organised list-makers among us get on top of their to-do list.

Remember to record these goals and check back in on them at the beginning of next week’s check-in.

Now, go forth and remotely prosper!

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As a burgeoning digital asset class, cryptocurrencies attract a colourful cast of investors. These include those who dabble for fear of missing out, traders looking to flip tokens for short-term gains, and “crypto whales” who buy as much as possible and sit on it long-term.

For investors who plan to hold (or rather, HODL) their Bitcoin holdings for the long haul, the key challenge is probably the lack of immediate benefit. After all, it could take years before you realise your investment gains.

Fortunately, with the rise of crypto loans, it’s now possible for buy-and-hold investors to generate cash flow from their crypto holdings.

This article will explain how such loans work, who might want to consider them, and their benefits and risks.

How does a Bitcoin loan work?

For simplicity, let’s talk only about Bitcoin loans. As the grandfather of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin enjoys the most institutional acceptance and offers the most options for crypto loans.

A Bitcoin-backed loan works a lot like a traditional secured loan such as a mortgage or car loan. You borrow a lump sum of cash and pay it back, with interest, over a stipulated period.

Also Read: What is crypto-economics, and why is it a crucial element in decentralised networks?

Meanwhile, the lender holds your assets as collateral to reduce the risk of you defaulting on the loan (not that you would!). You remain the rightful owner of your Bitcoin. However, as long as you still have the outstanding fiat loan, you can’t freely trade or sell the BTC that is held as collateral.

This arrangement results in liquid fiat money for you to use or invest without requiring you to sell your Bitcoin. Thus, you retain the potential long-term upside of your crypto assets.

Three reasons to take a Bitcoin loan

If you have a significant amount of Bitcoin in your name with no plans to use or sell it anytime soon, a crypto loan could be worth considering.

Generally, borrowers get Bitcoin-backed loans for the following reasons:

• For investment purposes: Many crypto natives and investors use the fiat from their Bitcoin loans for other investments such as crypto trading. Crypto trading, especially arbitrage trading, is lucrative but fiat-intensive since each trade must be fully settled in fiat. If the potential upside from trading outweighs the loan’s interest rate, taking a Bitcoin loan may make financial sense.

• To fund mining operations: While Bitcoin mining remains lucrative, its operational costs can be prohibitive, all the more so since electricity bills and computer hardware need to be settled in fiat. Miners pledge their Bitcoin holdings as collateral in loans assuming that their earnings would exceed the loan’s interest rate.

• For business or corporate use: BTC-holding corporations or other entities also take on crypto loans as working capital or for investment purposes. An example of this is MicroStrategy borrowing US$205 million from Silvergate Bank to “further execute against [its] business strategy.”

How much collateral do I need for a Bitcoin loan?

Bitcoin loans typically have a loan to value (“LTV”) ratio of 50 per cent, meaning you can borrow up to 50 per cent of the value of the BTC you offer as collateral.

To calculate the amount of collateral needed for a Bitcoin loan, simply double your desired loan in fiat. For example, if you need to borrow US$10 million in fiat, you would need to offer US$20 million in BTC as collateral.

Most loan providers commonly use a 50 per cent LTV ratio to manage the volatility risks around cryptocurrency. It ensures that the loan’s value is still covered even if the price of BTC falls suddenly.

What happens if the price of BTC falls?

Should the price of Bitcoin fall below a certain threshold while you still have an outstanding crypto loan, you may be obliged to top up the collateral such that the LTV ratio remains at 50 per cent. This requirement is known as a “margin call”.

Due to the volatility of the asset type, margin calls are a real possibility. Borrowers should be mentally and financially prepared for them. That means you should not pledge your entire BTC portfolio for a loan; you’ll need some BTC in reserve in the event of a margin call.

Also Read: Cryptocurrency, money laundering and KYC: Why are regulations important?

At Fintonia Group, our crypto loans have suitable margin call thresholds where you need not worry about every single price fluctuation. Margin calls are triggered only when LTV is at 70 per cent and 80 per cent. At the 85 per cent level, borrowers may face auto liquidation.

Note that borrowers who fail to comply with margin calls or default on their loans may forfeit their collateralised Bitcoin.

Will my collateral be safe?

Security is a huge issue in the crypto space. Any savvy investor ought to be wary about theft, hacking, and fraud, which are commonplace in the crypto ecosystem, and the same concerns extend to crypto loans.

Borrowers depositing a significant amount of crypto as collateral should run background checks on their providers and consider the security measures.

At Fintonia Group, all collateral is deposited with a fully-insured third-party custodian for safekeeping. Your BTC collateral is held securely in an offline cold wallet. Combined, these state-of-the-art security measures reduce the risk of theft or loss of your assets to a negligible level.

Why take a Bitcoin-backed loan with Fintonia Group?

As one of the only crypto liquidity providers regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Fintonia Group is a cut above the rest. Be assured that your Bitcoin holdings are managed by a financial services provider complying with stringent regulatory standards.

Borrowers can choose crypto loan amounts ranging from US$1 million to US$50 million, typically at an LTV ratio of 50 per cent. It is possible to obtain a larger loan, subject to individual assessment. Loan tenures range from one month to 12 months, depending on your needs.

With Fintonia Group, it’s possible to gain fiat liquidity while retaining the long-term upside of your crypto portfolio, so you can have your cake and eat it too.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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Pintu, a mobile-first crypto wallet and trading platform in Indonesia, has closed a US$113 million Series B round of financing from Intudo Ventures, Lightspeed, Northstar Group, and Pantera Capital.

The startup will use the money to roll out new features, including additional tokens, supported blockchains, and new products. It will also invest heavily in the Pintu Academy programme to help traders understand the opportunities and risks of crypto investing and promote healthier and sustainable trading practices.

Pintu will continue to aggressively hire top talent across all functions to support these initiatives, having already doubled its team size to 200 members in 2021.

Launched in April 2020, Pintu provides millennials and retail users a platform to invest in crypto-assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. It “offers comprehensive trading tools, simple UI/UX, advanced security features”, and educational content to assist investors in trading, analysing, managing assets, and learning about cryptocurrencies.

Also Read: Crypto loans: Having your cake and eating it too?

It offers features such as Pintu Earn (which allows users to earn an annual percentage yield on selected crypto assets that is paid hourly with no lock-up) and Pintu Staking (which offers many exclusive benefits for users who stake their Pintu Token), and additional payment channel integrations to make depositing and withdrawing of funds easily.

Since its launch, Pintu claims over four million users have installed its app, up from 500,000 in May 2021. It also runs Pintu Academy, a programme designed to educate and teach novice crypto traders the ins and outs of trading, acclimate traders to crypto fundamentals, and understand how to invest and sustainably manage risk.

Last August, Pintu raised US$35 million in an extended Series A financing, led by Lightspeed, in August 2021. This followed a US$6 million Series A round, led by Pantera Capital, Intudo Ventures and Coinbase Ventures, in May that year.

Over the past year, the number of crypto investors in Indonesia has doubled to more than 12 million traders, according to data from the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappepti), compared with 7 million domestic public equity investors.

Indonesia’s crypto market still has significant room for growth, as crypto asset ownership has only reached a 4 per cent penetration rate.

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