Digital asset exchange DigiFT scores $10.5m in Shanda-led funding

DigiFT, a Singapore-based decentralised digital asset exchange (DEX) for asset-backed tokens (STO), announced that it has raised $10.5 million in its pre-Series A funding round, led by Shanda Group, a global privately-owned investment group founded by Chinese online entertainment pioneer Tianqiao Chen and family in 1999.

The new funds will be used to support license applications in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, go-to-market plans, technology development as well as to expand the company’s innovation capabilities.

Other investors including HashKey Capital, a multi-stage global venture capital firm investing in visionary blockchain founders, Hash Global, a Web3 venture capital firm with offices in Singapore and Shanghai, Xin Enterprise Pte. Ltd., a Singapore investment firm wholly owned by Liang Xinjun, co-founder of Fosun Group, and North Beta Capital, an eco-building capital in the digital technology industry took part in the funding as well.

DigiFT was founded in 2020 by Henry Zhang, formerly Greater China CEO of East West Bank, deputy China CEO of Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank, and is helmed by a leadership team who has extensive experience in financial institutions and fintech.

With a vision to bridge the gap between centralized and decentralized finance, DigiFT is the first and only DEX enrolled in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) FinTech Regulatory Sandbox.

It aims to provide regulated decentralized finance solutions on the Ethereum public blockchain offering, an Automatic Market Making (AMM) mechanism that facilitates secondary trading liquidity for security tokens backed by financial assets such as bonds and equities.

Asset owners can issue blockchain-based security tokens efficiently and cost-effectively. Investors are also able to trade with continuous liquidity via the AMM mechanism and retain control over digital assets in their own wallets.

As a key international financial hub, Singapore boasts a robust legal framework and government support for tokenization with blockchain technology. We look forward to further working with regulatory bodies to steer our industry in the right direction,” shared Henry Zhang, founder and CEO of DigiFT.

Shanda Group’s business is segmented into four business units – Private Equity (Venture Capital) Investments, Public Market Investments, Real Estate, and Natural Resources.