Media firm Plan B Media Plc and Master Ad Plc (MACO) have invested more than 300 million baht in digital asset startup Zipmex in order to capitalise on the growing cryptocurrency trend in Southeast Asia.
Zipmex has recorded over 100 billion baht in trading volume over the last 12 months and has scaled its workforce to over 300 people.
Its exchange token, Zipmex Token (ZMT), has grown in value from 15 baht to a high of 180 baht.
This investment will provide a partnership for ZMT to be integrated into the advertising ecosystem across multiple platforms with the goal of becoming the prolific utility token in Thailand.
This investment is part of a larger fundraising round of global high profile investors that will be announced in the coming weeks.
The investment and partnership will help Zipmex reach millions of customers across Thailand and Southeast Asia.
Apart from having an exchange and brokerage licence in Thailand, Zipmex is also legally compliant in Indonesia, Singapore and Australia.
The platform has expanded its offerings to include earn and spend products and has recently launched ZipWorld (redemption of lifestyle products and services using cryptocurrency) and will soon be launching Z-Launchpool (early access to new investment tokens).
"Zipmex has taken on an important role in facilitating transactions via crypto as well as increasing the use cases and utilising crypto in our daily lives. We continue to expand to other products in order to bridge the gap between finance and lifestyle. We are extremely honoured Plan B and MACO have placed such an important trust in us," said Akalarp Yimwilai, co-founder and chief executive of Zipmex Thailand.
Last year, Zipmex raised more than US$6 million in funding led by Jump Capital, a US investment firm with portfolio companies including TradingView, a cloud-based charting and social-networking software.
"We believe Zipmex has one of the most promising teams in the industry. They have a clear vision to ignite this digital asset revolution and have strong execution capabilities demonstrated by a solid track record since their launch," said Pinijsorn Luechaikajohnpan, managing director of Plan B.
"We look forward to supporting their growth with our network of integrated media and content portfolio. The digital asset space provides many opportunities for us to strengthen our ecosystem in the engagement marketing space including sports, artist management and gaming. We are confident that this investment and partnership will secure Plan B's vision to be a leader in innovation," Mr Pinijsorn said.