Ziglu raises £1 million in 81 minutes as UK crypto app quadruples customer base in 2021
Ziglu was launched by Starling Bank co-founder Mark Hipperson and has been able to quadruple its customer base over the course of 2021.
Ziglu has raised its £1 million target in just 81 minutes via crowdfunding, beating its previous record of three hours, on Seedrs, the leading equity crowdfunding platform.
The first round, in September 2020, had the same £1 million target and raised more than £6 million, with more than 1,200 individual investors. It was ranked as Seedrs’ largest equity raise in 2020.
The second crowdfunding round was launched on Monday 27th September in conjunction with a major Series A fundraise with venture capital firms.
The funds raised are meant to fuel the continued rapid expansion of the UK-based money app, which offers account and card services and simple access to leading cryptocurrencies.
Ziglu offers customers access to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, Chainlink, Dogecoin, Ether, Litecoin, Polkadot, Solano and Tezos.
The mobile app is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, UK’s financial watchdog, and is fully authorized as an Electronic Money Institution.
The firm claims to be one of the world’s first cryptocurrency platforms to comply with the Anti Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), implemented in over 200 jurisdictions.
Ziglu was launched by Starling Bank co-founder Mark Hipperson and has been able to quadruple its customer base over the course of 2021.
Mark Hipperson, Founder and CEO of Ziglu, said: “The speed at which our latest crowdfund has been oversubscribed underlines the progress Ziglu has made in the last year and the fact that, as a leading regulated crypto and neo-banking fintech, we are leveraging our advantage in the increasingly mainstream crypto environment. We would also like individual investors to benefit from our success, as well as institutional investors, which is why crowdfunding is important to us.”
According to Ziglu research, almost one in 10 (9%) of adults in the UK currently own cryptocurrencies, with this forecast to double within 12 months, a sign of crypto going mainstream. Nearly half (48%) of crypto investors either held on to their investments or bought more, the research found.
The FCA itself has recently published a report estimating that 2.3 million adults held cryptoassets in May (up from 1.9 million last year) in the United Kingdom – which is a 21% rise YoY -, with 78% of adults having heard of cryptoassets.
The survey suggests that the majority of the growing number of cryptocurrency holders had a positive experience so far and is likely to buy more in the future as they regard them less as a gamble. The FCA, however, seems to have discouraged half of the consumers aware of warnings on the regulators’ website.
The consumer research shows 38% of crypto users regard them as a gamble (down from 47% last year) while increasing numbers see them as either a complement or alternative to mainstream investments.
Over half of crypto users have had a positive experience so far and are likely to buy more (rising from 41% to 53%), according to the research. Regretful consumers have declined from 15% to 11%.
The FCA, in the meantime, has plans to control and regulate the ads that are related to crypto to ensure that investors and users are not misled. The regulator has called for more powers to do precisely that.
