Fenbushi’s new funding should help Amber overcome some of the “significant declines” resulting from FTX’s default.
Amber has closed a new $300 million Series C funding round led by blockchain-focused venture capital firm Fenbushi Capital US, the company announced on Twitter on December 15.
The new funding round comes as Amber decided to pause its previous Series B funding and instead proceed with Series C as FTX plummets.
Prior to the failure of FTX, Amber was in the process of completing a Series B expansion at a $3 billion valuation. As previously reported, the company planned to raise $100 million in Series B funding, with the goal of completing the round by January 2023. In mid-December 2022, Amber raised $50 million in the round.
Fenbushi’s recent funding is intended to help Amber deal with some of the “significant losses” of Amber’s specific products following the FTX outage, the company said.
“As such, we have moved quickly to adjust our fundraising strategy,” Amber noted, adding that the company will also reduce its mass consumer efforts and “non-essential businesses” to focus on core businesses. . Because of this, Amber dropped plans for expansion in Europe and the United States, and also dropped some metaverse-related projects.
Amber reiterated that the FTX contagion did not affect the company’s day-to-day operations, although Amber held approximately 10% of its total trading shares in FTX at the time of its collapse.
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The company also mentioned that it had to lay off some employees due to the FTX contagion: “These were not easy decisions and unfortunately we had to say goodbye to many of our excellent colleagues.” According to some reports, Amber has more than 40 in September and December 2022% of its workforce laid off.
Despite the cancellation of expansion plans and layoffs, Amber has not given up on its acquisition ambitions. On December 14, Amber acquired Singaporean crypto platform Sparrow Holdings for an undisclosed amount.
Cryptocurrency trading firm Amber Group is taking steps to mitigate the impact of trade risk on bankrupt FTX exchange by proactively raising new funds.