Switzerland’s Smart Card Crypto Wallet Tangem Gets $15 Million From SBI Group

By Prashant Jha

For the second time this month, the SBI Group, a finance behemoth from Japan has announced that it is contributing funds to a Swiss crypto wallet startup, Tangem this time. Tangem from Switzerland is a firm that manufactures “smart card” crypto wallets and according to a recent press release dated 21st January, 2019, has announced that it has received $15 million in funding from the SBI Group.

Tangem has been an active part of the sector since June 2018, when it started issuing the first batch of its wallets. Its primary objective was to make it convenient for the users to spend their crypto holdings directly, just like you would use a traditional smart card.

Traditional smart cards are usually recharged with fiat money and then redeemed for services in travel settings or in terms of loyalty points. This was the basic idea that Tangem wanted to bring to crypto storage.

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The two main sectors that Tangem is targeting are loyalty and travel/event ticketing.

The firm is hopeful that their smart card storage system will catch in on both these industries soon, as users begin to realize how convenient it all is.

The press release notes that Tangem is hoping to soon launch its very own ICO as well.

In the words of Andrey Kurennykh, who co-founded the Tangem smart card wallet company:

“We take the next big step on our mission to bring blockchain to people’s everyday life. In 2018, our technology was proven by the markets after we launched the mass production of Tangem cards for crypto currencies and tokens. With this additional investment in 2019, we will be able to extend our product offering in other industries and provide better support to companies which embrace the idea of physical distribution of blockchain assets.”

Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, President & CEO of SBI Holdings Inc. was also quite optimistic about the prospects of the Tangem wallet. He explained how the funding initiative would aid SBI’s own business interests in the following terms:

“The Tangem hardware wallet, which is highly secure and affordable, is an important tool to promote mass adoption of digital assets and blockchain. We believe utilizing Tangem will help stipulate the demand for other blockchain services provided by SBI.”