Yellow Card has emerged as Africa’s fastest growing cryptocurrency exchange after securing £12 million in Series A funding.
The largest ever by an African crypto exchange, the round was led by Valar Ventures, Third Prime, and Castle Island Ventures with participation from Blockchain.com Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, and more.
Yellow Card will use this funding from some of the biggest venture funds in blockchain to scale its operations across Africa and ramp up hiring.
Chris Maurice, co-founder and CEO of Yellow Card, said: “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.”
Africa’s cryptocurrency market holds potential for massive growth in the coming decade. A Chainalysis report found that the market had grown by more than 1200% in value from July 2020 to June 2021.
What’s more, Africa also has a bigger share of its overall crypto transaction volume made up of retail transfers than any other region at just over 7%, compared to the global average of 5.5%.
This is because, unlike in advanced industrialised economies, where crypto is largely seen as an investable asset, users in the global south are increasingly viewing crypto as a vehicle for savings, remittances, and transactions.
Valar Ventures’ founding partner James Fitzgerald said: “Africa is poised to benefit tremendously from cryptocurrency’s potential to transform financial services.
“We believe in Yellow Card’s vision of a Pan-African cryptocurrency platform. What cemented the deal is their multi-national team, which we believe has the local knowledge, technical expertise, and unequivocal passion to address the basic financial services needs of the continent.”
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