The firm will use the funding to double its head count as it looks to drive market awareness globally
A £6.6m equity fundraising round from Coincover has provided a partial exit for the Wales Angel Co-Investment Fund. Coincover has developed the world’s first cryptocurrency theft insurance cover.
This is the first exit for the fund which backed a syndicate of business angels led by Ashley Cooper with the maximum amount of £250,000 early stage funding in Cardiff-based Coincover through two rounds beginning in 2018.
While the Wales Angel Co-Investment Fund will retain its part of its shareholding, the Development Bank of Wales will invest a further £390,000 through its Wales Flexible Investment Fund.
The firm, which currently employs 20, will double its head count over the next six months on the back of its latest funding round as it looks to drive market awareness globally.
Mr Cooper, Angels Invest Wales lead investor and chairman of Coincover said: It has been an amazing journey for Coincover since our syndicate lead the seed funding round in 2018. Being able to access the Wales Angel Co-investment Fund for early funding was pivotal to allowing co-founders David and Adam Smith, and their early team, to refine and market test the proposition and to achieve initial product-market fit prior to commercial launch in 2020.
Since launch the business has scaled rapidly with massive growth in team, customers and ARR. We look forward to working alongside the incoming investors to help deliver on the huge market potential by becoming the global safety standard for cryptocurrency, he said.
Steve Holt, director of Angels Invest Wales, said: With a fantastic management team, Coincover is building the infrastructure that will allow crypto to reach mass adoption.
Having reached our investment limit, our exit has paved the way for Element as funders of some of the very best companies that are building tomorrow’s financial technology to give Coincover the opportunity to scale-up with Series A funding. As early stage investors, it has been an honour and privilege to support David and the business angels on their journey to date particularly as it is such a great success story for Cardiff as a prospering centre for crypto. We will also retain some shareholding to benefit from the future growth of the company.
Rhian Elston, investment director for the Development Bank of Wales, said, the Wales Angel Co-Investment Fund was created to encourage more angel investing in Wales and build more angel syndicates. Achieving our first exit is a really positive way to demonstrate the benefits of angel investing. The fund has played a key role in supporting the start-up of the business and has now created the room for larger institutional investors to lead the next stage of growth.