South African Bitcoin Startup Centbee Raises £1 Million in Series A Round of Funding

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South African Bitcoin Startup, Centbee announced it has completed a £1 million (N470 million) Series A round of funding. The round was led by Calvin Ayre, founder of Antigua-based investment firm, Ayre Ventures and CoinGeek.

The deal was facilitated by blockchain advisory firm, nChain, which in January last year took an undisclosed size of equity and stake in Centbee.

Founded in 2017 by Lorien Gamaroff, a leading blockchain tech expert, and Angus Brown, former eBucks CEO, Centbee is a cryptocurrency wallet for sending, receiving or storing Bitcoin.

South African Bitcoin Startup Centbee Raises £1 Million in Series A Round

The startup specialises in a specific variant cryptocurrency, the bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision). And this was one of the perks that made Calvin Ayre make the investment as Ayre, Centbee, and nChain all share a passion for bitcoin SV.

BSV, or Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, is a bitcoin implementation that follows the original design written by bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

“They support the original Bitcoin protocol in the form of Bitcoin SV (BSV), and have demonstrated an extraordinary ability to attract users and we’re proud to support their further growth,” said Ayre.

This funding is only the second for the startup, the first was by nChain in January. And now the company will be looking to use the funds to scale its blockchain technology.

Speaking on the new investment, Centbee co-founder, Gamaroff said the company had a well-defined roadmap with exciting payment and remittance products coming to market this year.

“Centbee has one of the most user-friendly bitcoin wallets and merchant payment solutions we have seen. It is built using the original bitcoin protocol, now alive only in the form of Bitcoin SV (BSV), which has a plan for massive blockchain scaling. This allows Centbee to offer low fees and fast transaction speeds.”

Jimmy Nguyen, chairman of nChain Group’s strategic advisory board and founding president of the Bitcoin Association.

Beyond Scaling, the investment is a part of a broader collaboration to advance the bitcoin SV ecosystem in Africa and around the world. nChain will also support Centbee with its technical consulting services and access to its intellectual property portfolio, which will aid the growth of the BSV blockchain.


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