Bahrain’s Crypto-exchange Startup Rain Closes $2.5 Million Seed Round

Bahrain-based cryptocurrency exchange, Rain has scored $2.5 million in seed round investment. The round was co-led by Kuwait-based cryptocurrency fund, Blockwater, BitMEX Ventures, Vision Ventures, 500 Startups MENA, and Taibah Valley. Fueled by this initiative, Rain aims to maintain and deliver more reliable access to cryptocurrency across the region.

As one of the world’s most advance cryptocurrency funds, BitMEX Ventures oversees a diverse investment portfolio of high-end fin-tech and crypto-based companies with advance technology and innovative financial products complementary to BitMEX’s core values. With this investment, it intends to help Rain in its vision of creating a top-tier, internationally acclaimed cryptocurrency exchange. Rain becomes the first cryptocurrency exchange in the Middle East to obtain a full regulatory license by acquiring the Crypto-Asset Module (CRA) license from the Central Bank of Bahrain. When Rain established contact with the Central Bank of Bahrain in early 2017, the startup’s team met up with executive members in an informative session on cryptocurrency, which prompted the creation of CBB’s Regulatory Sandbox Programme where Rain worked intensively for the past two years to provide reliable insight from the industry’s perspective.

“In addition to us obtaining the [CRA] License, what makes us stand out is our ability to provide our service to buy, sell and store cryptocurrency using our web-based and mobile applications while being compliant with existing regulations. We see ourselves as the foundation and infrastructure provider for crypto-related services, and that will push us a step forward in today’s ecosystem,” Rain's co-founder Yehia Badawy tells Startup Scene.

Rain plans on expanding their team to accommodate growing customer support and engineering needs, as well as investing in new technology, offering more currencies and expanding operations to other parts in the region. Rain was founded in 2016 by four entrepreneurs Yehia Badawy, Abdullah Almoaiqal, AJ Nelson and Joseph Dallago.

“BitMEX Ventures is devoted to encouraging greater global access to cryptocurrency trading as we start to see the maturation of cryptocurrency as a legitimate asset class. As the first licensed cryptocurrency exchange in the Middle East, Rain has an unprecedented opportunity to tap into the incredible potential that cryptocurrency trading will bring to the region,” commenting on this occasion, BitMEX co-founder and CEO Arthur Hayes.