The Japanese conglomerate SBI Holdings also took part in the funding round alongside several unnamed investors, and Zodia Custody revealed that it plans to use the funds to fuel its geographic expansion and increase the company’s coverage. Moreover, Zodia Custody wants to improve its interchange and off-exchange settlement services in a bid to protect client assets that are traded on crypto exchanges.
The exact split of the USD 36 million Zodia Custody funding has not been disclosed. However, in March 2023, Standard Chartered’s Zodia Holdings issued an additional USD 5 million in capital, according to corporate filings cited by Ledger Insights.
Zodia Custody officials cited by coinjournal.net talked about this new funding round and mentioned the role of compliance as a shaping factor in the direction of the digital asset ecosystem, particularly as more investors demand greater assurance and rigour. Standard Chartered launched Zodia Custody in partnership with Northern Trust in 2021.
According to coindesk.com, Zodia Custody joined forces with Japanese financial services firm SBI Holdings’ crypto arm to set up a crypto asset custodian for institutional investors. Through this partnership, the two companies aim to appeal to institutions interested in crypto investment and adoption but are discouraged by a lack of custodial services that meet the grade of provider in the traditional finance (TradFi) industry.
The partnership’s ownership is divided 51%-49% in SBI DAH's favour, and it is subject to anti-trust and foreign direct investment clearances, as well as licenses from the Japanese regulator, the Financial Services Agency.
The deal follows a previous collaboration from 2022 between SBI DAH and Zodia Custody, when they worked together to build a digital asset ecosystem. According to Ledger Insights, SBI revealed during an investor presentation that the collaboration included the UK group headquarters of Standard Chartered and aimed to cover BaaS-related (blockchain as a service) businesses and digital asset fields (DeFi, Metaverse, Web3.0, etc.) in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
During the same presentation, SBI also mentioned a digital asset custody joint venture between a certain global UK enterprise and two SBI subsidiaries, SBI Digital Assets Holdings and crypto exchange SBI VC Trade.
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