Cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift raises $10.4 million Series A round

Swiss cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift has raised $10.4 million in a Series A round led by Earlybird Venture Capital to help expand its team.

Other participants in the funding round include Lakestar, Blockchain Capital, Pantera Capital, Access Venture Partners alongside previous investors FundersClub, Digital Currency Group as well as ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees.

The exchange will use the new funds to hire more engineering staff to improve its growth strategy and meet volume demand. According to the company, it has grown 48% every month since it launched three years ago.

ShapeShift allows for the trading of any cryptocurrency that exists on the public blockchain such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, Augur’s Rep token, and Monero.

“When we started ShapeShift, a future world of natively digital assets was very theoretical,” said CEO Voorhees in a statement. “Yet this world is quickly arriving; one in which millions of forms of digital value, from access keys to tokenized derivative contracts to video game items, will trade between people and machines all over the world, every second of every day.

“Just as information has gone natively digital, so too now goes value. Bitcoin taught a skeptical world how to do it, and the gold rush is on.”

“ShapeShift's team built a compelling crypto exchange engine which can be easily integrated into third-party products given its unique trustless design,” commented Christian Nagel, partner at Earlybird. “It is uncommon to find the powerful combination of a noted serial Bitcoin entrepreneur, a senior team with deep industry knowledge, and a strong vision as the one present at ShapeShift.”