Thailand’s unicorn, Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited has announced that it has made a strategic investment in Binance US through its Gulf International Investment Limited, its Hong Kong-based wholly-owned subsidiary. The revelation was made in a filing lodged with the Stock Exchange of Thailand, noting that it invested in the Series Seed Preferred Stock issued by BAM Trading Services, the operator of the regulated digital asset exchange. The announcement detailed that the injected capital will be used to expand the trading platform’s staff strength and launch a number of growth-focused programs in the US.

“Binance US will use the proceeds from the seed funding to expand headcount, launch ROI based marketing efforts, expand its product portfolio and make potential future acquisitions before its planned initial public offering (IPO) in 2-3 years. As such, the investment in Binance.US not only provides an opportunity for the Company to participate in one of the fastest user scale-up exchanges in the world but also realises potential higher investment value post Binance US’ IPO,” the filing reads.

Besides its direct investment in the trading platform, Gulf Energy also acquired a substantial amount of the BNB tokens as both firms look to solidify their new relationship with the establishment of a Joint Venture in which a new crypto trading platform will be floated.

Gulf Energy’s partnership with Binance is well in tune with its digital transformational plans and will lay the basis for the firm’s potential moves in the emerging digital scene in the near future.

“The company believes that this multi-level cooperation with Binance, which is the global leader in blockchain infrastructure technology, is aligned with the Company’s target to be the leader in digital infrastructure while providing further opportunities for the Company to expand into other digital asset-related initiatives in the future,” a second filing detailing the BNB token purchase reads.

The investment and partnership from Thailand’s Gulf Energy through its various subsidiaries echo a related move from other global venture capital firms. The blockchain ecosystem has continued to see an inflow of funds even from traditional companies looking to diversify their funds. Binance US is a notable beneficiary of these capital injections as well as other prominent players including FTX amongst others.