Swiss Crypto Wallet Startup Tangem Secures $15 Million Investment from Japan’s SBI Group

Tangem is a Swiss Startup, which is responsible for making a slimline hardware wallet that works as a “smart banknote for digital assets.”

The hardware design allows customers to use it like a bank card, and off-chain transactions in person can be performed, like in-store payments. All the user needs to do is use an NFC-enabled smartphone to load crypto assets onto the device for spending.

As a result of their progress, SBI Group, a financial services giant in Japan, has decided to invest $15 million in their work, which was announced on Monday. According to the startup, the newly secured funding will be used to help with their technology to support stablecoins, initial coin offerings (ICOs), tokenized asset offerings, digital identity, and other areas. SBI confirmed their support separately.

SBI’s statement refrained from documenting the exact amount of their investment. However, they state the funding was possible through SBI Crypto Investment, which is their wholly-owned subsidiary that seeks out investment opportunities involving digital assets. The decision to invest in Tangem was allegedly due to their “inexpensive” and “robust” product, which could help with the demand for crypto products in general, especially for SBI.

Yoshitaka Kitao, the representative director, president & CEO of SBI Holdings, said,

“The Tangem hardware wallet, which is highly secure and affordable, is an important tool to promote mass adoption of digital assets and blockchain. We believe utilizing Tangem will help stimulate the demand for other blockchain services provided by SBI.”

Last year, in October, SBI Group chose to partner with Sepior, a blockchain security startup in Denmark, aiming to create a digital wallet that would serve them on VCTRADE, which is their crypto exchange. Earlier in March, the group had made another investment with a cold wallet creator named CoolBitX, giving them a 40% stake.

Hardware wallets are growing in their demand, considering the many hacks that digital wallets are posing by being connected online, where hackers can access them. In the first half of 2018 alone, Japan lost 60.503 billion yen, which is around $540 million worth of cryptocurrency.

Over the last 18 months as a whole, another report suggests that cyberattacks have caused the loss of $880 million around the world.