Chainalysis Secures Strategic Investment from Japan Fintech Experts for APAC Expansion

NEW YORK, April 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Chainalysis, the leading provider of cryptocurrency compliance and investigation solutions, today announced it raised an additional $6M to close its $36M Series B round with a strategic investment from Japan's largest financial institution, MUFG, via its wholly owned corporate venture capital subsidiary MUFG Innovation Partners, as well as Sozo Ventures, the global expansion venture capital firm based in Tokyo and Redwood City, California. With the investment, which follows a $30M raise from Accel and Benchmark in February, Chainalysis will expand its business in Asia Pacific and plans to open an office in the region.

Chainalysis has substantially grown its business in Asia Pacific, in lock step with the growth of cryptocurrency in the region. In the past year, the company more than doubled the number of clients it serves in APAC and increased its contracted revenue from clients there by more than 16x. Chainalysis plans to build on this momentum with a physical presence and deeper engagements with entities including Sozo and MUFG, who will provide critical market insights.

"Cryptocurrency technology is global and inclusive by design," said Michael Gronager, CEO, Chainalysis. "Our business was founded on the belief that in order for the industry to grow, all its stakeholders ? governments, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency businesses ? must be united in establishing ground truth for the industry. This strategic investment will strengthen our relationships with financial institutions in Asia in particular, and spearhead both our growth and the industry's advancement in an important region."

"Chainalysis is building foundational technology for the future of cryptocurrency and providing data-driven insights to help the industry understand how these networks behave," said Phil Wickham, Sozo Ventures. "Chainalysis has already established itself as the industry standard for investigations and compliance, and we look forward to leveraging our fintech and blockchain expertise to support Chainalysis to grow in the region."

"Chainalysis's compliance technology is important to providing the insight and anti-money laundering controls banks need in order to establish next generation compliance frameworks," said Nobutake Suzuki, President & CEO, MUFG Innovation Partners. "Today's announcement signals our joint commitment to growing the cryptocurrency industry in Japan and Asia Pacific more soundly and broadly."

ABOUT CHAINALYSIS
Chainalysis offers cryptocurrency investigation and compliance solutions to global law enforcement agencies, regulators, and businesses as they work together to fight illicit cryptocurrency activity. Backed by Accel, Benchmark and other leading names in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.

ABOUT SOZO
Sozo Ventures is a US-based venture firm that focuses on helping category leading startups in the US expand internationally, with a focus on Japanese markets. The firm leverages ~20+ large corporate strategic partners spread across industries in Japan and deep industry expertise to connect technology-forward global customers. Founded in 2012, the firm has over $400M AUM and has invested in and helped the international expansion efforts of Twitter, Palantir, Square, Coinbase, MongoDB, Flexport, Zoom, Servicemax, and more.

ABOUT MUFG
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) is one of the world's leading financial groups. Headquartered in Tokyo and with over 360 years of history, MUFG has a global network with more than 1,800 locations in more than 50 countries. The Group has more than 150,000 employees and offers services including commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing. The Group aims to "be the world's most trusted financial group" through close collaboration among our operating companies and to flexibly respond to all of the financial needs of our customers, serve society, and foster shared and sustainable growth for a better world. MUFG's shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York stock exchanges. For more information, visit https://www.mufg.jp/english 

SOURCE Chainalysis Inc.