Kyash becomes the first Asia-based country in which Jack Dorsey’s Block has invested

The Japan-based digital wallet company, Kyash, has announced that it has secured $41.2 million funding in a Series D round. The platform, which was launched in 2015, has grown its total funding to around $108 million through its cashless mobile app and corresponding credit card.

The announcement, according to a report by Nikkei, revealed that both international inventors and Japanese banks participated in the round, including Japan Post Investment Corporation, Block (previously Square), along with the Altos Ventures Goodwater Capital and StepStone Group in the United States.

JAFCO Group, SMBC Nikko Securities, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, and Greyhound Capital in the United Kingdom also contributed heavily in the funding. Kyash reportedly becomes the first Asian country in which Block has invested.

Kyash aims expansion of its offerings

As per the company, the funding will be mainly used in the expansion by hiring more employees, releasing more product offerings, and strengthening its service operations. The president and CEO of Kyash, Shinichi Takatori, said that “It’s been tough to build a long-term economic model based primarily on payments and settlements.” He went on to say that the company believes that these funds will position the firm for its “high capital efficiency.”

He was particularly grateful for Block’s new investment, which he described as “a leader in financial innovation in the United States and other nations.”

“Kyash’s user-first, mobile-first concept, and design is a significant component of the global, irreversible trend toward unbundling conventional financial institutions and rebundling them with technology,” said Taikuma Baba, managing director of Japan Post Investment Corporation.

Kyash is a neobank, or online bank, in the same way as Robinhood, Chime, SoFi, and Revolut are. In 2020, it secured $45 million in a Series C funding round.

As TheCoinRise reported in November last year, Jack Dorsey announced his departure from Twitter. In December, Square rebranded as Block and announced the addition of many Bitcoin (BTC) startups to its portfolio.