Amber Group raises $300M to recover from FTX contagion

Amber has completed a new $300 million Series C funding round, led by blockchain-focused venture capital company Fenbushi Capital US, the firm announced on Twitter on Dec. 15.

The new funding round comes as Amber has decided to pause its previous Series B funding and proceed with Series C instead due to FTX collapse.

Prior to the failure of FTX, Amber was in process of completing an extension of its Series B at a $3 billion valuation. As previously reported, the company was planning to raise $100 million as part of the Series B funding, targeting to complete the round by January 2023. As of mid-December 2022, Amber raised $50 million in the round.

The latest funding from Fenbushi aims to help Amber address some of the “significant drawdowns” of Amber’s specific products as an aftermath of the FTX default, the firm said.

“That’s why we reacted quickly to adjust our fundraising strategy,” Amber noted, adding that the firm will be also scaling down its mass consumer efforts and “non-essential business lines” to focus on core businesses. As such, Amber has scrapped plans to expand to Europe and the United States, also ditching some metaverse-related projects.

Amber reiterated that the FTX contagion has not impacted the company’s daily operations despite Amber having about 10% of its total trading capital on FTX at the time of its collapse.

Related: FTX US ex-president reportedly seeks $6M funding to launch crypto startup

The company also mentioned that it had to lay off some employees due to the FTX contagion: “These have not been easy decisions, and we, unfortunately, have had to say goodbye to many of our excellent colleagues.” According to some reports, Amber laid off more than 40% of its staff in September and December 2022.

Despite ditching expansion plans and laying off staff, Amber has not given up on its acquisition ambitions. On Dec. 14, Amber acquired the Singaporean crypto platform Sparrow Holdings for an undisclosed amount.

Cryptocurrency trading firm Amber Group is taking action to mitigate the consequences of trading exposure to the bankrupt exchange FTX by proactively raising new funding.