South African bitcoin exchange, Luno, will set up an office in Malaysia as part of the company’s continued global expansion plan.
The office, which will be located in Kuala Lumpur, is planned for the first quarter of 2018 in order to benefit from a huge local interest in cryptocurrencies, according to TheMalaysianReserve.
With offices in Cape Town, Singapore and London, Luno is looking to set up further office sites as part of its plan to double its current 70 staff in order to support the company’s ongoing expansion plans into Europe and Asia.
In September the company announced an additional investment of $9 million in a round of funding that gave it resources to expand its service offering to cater for an additional 35 markets in Europe, bringing its total number of territories to 40, according to BusinessTech.
The bitcoin exchange enjoyed a successful Series B funding round led by London-based venture capital firm Balderton Capital, with the South African companies involved in that round including AlphaCode, the fintech investment arm of Rand Merchant Investments, and original investors Digital Currency Group.
That investment follows on from Luno’s $4 million Series A round in 2015, which was led by Africa’s largest company, Naspers, Techcrunch reports.
Last year Luno worked with South African payments tech firm Electrum to enable major supermarket chain Pick n Pay to accept bitcoin as a method of payment in the country.
Luno, one of the earliest bitcoin exchanges in the world, is pushing hard on global expansion plans that will enable the company to be a leader in trading major cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and ripple, which have all gained popularity in Malaysia.
The recruitment and hiring process is already underway for the Malaysian branch, which will likely include a country manager and operations lead positions.
In a recent setback for the company, Luno’s local bank account used in the country, under the name BitX Malaysia, has been frozen while tax authorities investigate possible tax concerns, according to Bitcoinist.
