From Yellow Card to Quidax, here are the top 5 most-funded African Crypto startups

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In the words of Square, Inc & Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one)!”  and he may be right.

A Chainanalysis report revealed that between July 2020 and June 2021, Africa’s cryptocurrency market grew by 1,200 per cent – making a whopping $105.6 billion in the process. The continent currently accounts for 14% of peer-to-peer trading on LocalBitcoins’ and Paxful’s platforms as trading on both platforms has surpassed $10 million weekly.

Yellow Card, one of Africa’s leading cryptocurrency platforms recently raised $15 million Series A funding. This brings its total funding to $16.5 million according to CrunchBase and makes it the most funded crypto platform in Africa. But which other companies come after it?

As cryptocurrency adoption increases and attracts foreign investment, here are the top 5 African cryptocurrency startups that have attracted the most investment.

Yellow Card – (Total Funding: $16.5million)

Yellow Card: Top 5 funded African crypto start-ups

Yellow Card is the easiest and most convenient way to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies without any bank account and fees. Founded in 2016 by Chris Maurice (CEO) and Justin Poiroux (CTO), the startup has established a presence in 12 African countries including Nigeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia etc.

Its mobile app supports 14 languages including 8 African Languages, 3 European Languages, Arabic and Mandarin.

The company just raised $15 million led by Valar Ventures, Third Prime, and Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Square, Blockchain.com Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain and more to increase expansion across the continent.

“Our mission has always been to make cryptocurrency accessible anywhere and everywhere across the African continent. Now, we have the backing to make that a reality, alongside an amazing team of investors who share our vision,” said Chris Maurice, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Yellow Card.

Sun Exchange – (Total Funding: $10.2 million)

TheSunExchange

The Sun Exchange is a crowd-based peer-to-peer solar panel leasing platform in South Africa. Founded in 2015 by Abraham Cambridge, the company has facilitated solar power for 45 businesses, schools, farms and other organizations in Southern Africa. The company’s platform allows people invest in solar cells for a project and receive dividends in BTC or local currency.

In March, the company successfully completed a $1.4 million crowd sale for a landmark 500 kW solar and 1 MWh battery storage project agriculture leader, Nhimbe Fresh. Through their platform, more than 1,700 people from 98 countries bought solar cells that will soon power the Nhimbe Fresh facilities.

The company secured $2.5 million in the form of a convertible note from ARCH Emerging Markets Partners Limited’s, Africa Renewable Power Fund (ARPF). This is following a previous investment of $3 million in the company’s Series A funding round by the same investors.

Quidax – (Total Funding: $3.6 million)

Quidax

Quidax is a digital assets exchange that allows users to seamlessly buy and sell cryptocurrency with their local currency. Founded in 2017 by Buchi Okoro, the company has processed $3.2bn worth of transactions since launching its app in August 2018. It has also grown from 50 to 400,000 customers across 72 countries.

Earlier this year Quidax, raised over $3 million from the public sale of its token, QDX and revealed plans of shifting from its Africa-focused strategy to becoming a global home of BEP20 tokens.

BuyCoins – (Total Funding: $1.2 million)

BuyCoins

Buycoins is a safe and easy way for Africans to buy, sell & store cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDC. They have a mission to facilitate the borderless transfer of value across Africa and beyond and are headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.

Founded in 2017 by Ire Aderinokun, Timi Ajiboye and Tomiwa Lasebikan the company reportedly processed over $141 million worth of crypto in 2020. The company has raised a total of $1.2M in funding over 3 rounds with their latest funding raised on Mar 25, 2019, from a Seed round.

Bitsika – (Total Funding: $1.06 million)

Bitsika uses blockchain technology to help users receive money instantly, from anyone, anywhere at zero cost. Founded in 2018 by Atsu Davoh, the app enables Africans to instantly receive money from anywhere in the world at no fees.

Everyone signs-up to the app via their Google account and gets to set a short username starting with a dollar sign.

As Nigeria's Yellow Card lands $15m funding, here are the top 5 most-funded African Crypto startups
Bitsika: Davido (L) & Atsu Davoh (R)

The company has Davido (David Adeleke) as its CMO and helps handle the marketing strategy of the organization. BitSika processed about $40 million from close to 269,000 transactions. It recorded a revenue of over $1 million from transaction fees.

BitSika’s total seed raise is $1,050,000 from Binance Labs and other investors.


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