Brazilian brokerage owner 2 TM raises $50 million to expand into Latin America

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Brazilian brokerage owner 2 TM raises $50 million to expand into Latin America

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2 TM Participacoes SA, owner of the biggest Brazilian-based criptocurrency brokerage, raised $50 million as it hunts for acquisitions to expand into additional Latin American markets.

The company, backed by SoftBank Group Corp., received investments from 10 T Holdings, a U.S. private equity firm focused on digital firms, and Tribe Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund. A Brazilian venture capital company PIPO Capital Gestao de Investimentos Ltda is also participating. According to 2 TM co-founder Gustavo Chamati, the proceeds will be used for new products and growth, including expanding into Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina.

After a torturous path trying to explain a technology that is as disruptive asblockchain, we are now able to convince Brazilian investors about its potential and also venture capitalists about the potential of Latin American markets, Chamati, 40, said in an interview.

The $50 million is part of a second round of investments that started with a $200 million capitalization from the SoftBank Latin America Fund, which was announced in July, which was valued at $2.15 billion and created the second criptocurrency unicorn in Latin America.

In January, 2 TM received its first round of capital from GP Investments, Gear Ventures, Evora Fund and Genial Investimentos. It didn't reveal how much it received.

Chamati has created Mercado Bitcoin SA, the first criptocurrency brokerage firm in Brazil and 2 TM s crown jewel in 2013 together with his brother Mauricio. He first learned about the topic ofBitcoin in 2011 from a program on MTV, and then started to read more about it.

He said that I got interested, started to talk to people and understood how deep a transformation it could bring to the financial markets.

After he and his brother put their own money into the firm, activity picked up this year when Mercado reached 3 million clients and traded more than 40 billion reais $7.1 billion, more than all previous years combined.

2 TM has already purchased several companies in Brazil and increased its headcount to 700 this year from 200. The MercadoBitcoin issued the first token of government debt and issued Futecoin, an investment in which gains come from fees Brazilian teams Vasco and Santos receive when a soccer player they train moves to a new team, as would be the case if Neymar was sold by Paris Saint-Germain to another team.

The firm s goal is to become a provider of services for financial markets in Latin America, including services such as custodian and fund management, according to Chief Executive Officer Roberto Dagnoni.

The idea is to get another round of private investment before we consider going public, and we are very happy to bring specialized investors such as Tribe Capital and 10 T Holdings to our firm, said Dagnoni.

Demand for the company's services varies from nation to nation, Dagnoni said earlier this month. In Mexico, for example, there is a lot of interest in remittance services, while in Argentina the peso s volatility means stable coins backed by the dollar are in high demand.

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