Gaurav Burman, managing partner of Elephant Capital, has invested in his personal capacity an undisclosed amount in itBit Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based Bitcoin exchange. Burman, who picked a minority stake in itBit, is planning to bring the platform to India. The development was first reported by The Times of India.
Last month, itBit had raised $3.25 million co-led by Canaan Partners and RRE Venture, with participation from Liberty City Ventures and a few individual investors.
itBit is a trading platform targeting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and is available to institutional investors globally. itBit trades between Bitcoin and US dollars, Singapore dollars, and Euros, and claims it provides a higher level of security and compliance. It also promises enhanced liquidity in its marketplace, and also screens and monitors for suspicious activity.
Globally, there are some companies, including BTCChina in China, MtGox in Japan and Bitstamp in Europe that buy/sell Bitcoins. In India, too, there is a startup called Seven Digital Cash LLP based out of Gandhinagar (Gujarat) that buys and sells this digital currency through its platform Buysellbitco.in.
Part of the promoter family of Dabur Group, Burman started his career at Dabur India. In 1997, he joined Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, a global PE firm with over $1.5 billion under management. He was instrumental in forming a number of the new PE products within Dresdner, including the US media and technology PE business.
He later set up Elephant Capital as an India-focused PE firm raising capital from London’s AIM exchange. The PE firm has had a patchy investment history and is currently on an exit mode from its old investments.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)