Yellow Card, a pan-African cryptocurrency exchange, has raised $15 million in a Series A round, the most ever raised by an African cryptocurrency exchange.
The round was led by Valar Ventures, Third Prime, and Castle Island Ventures with participation from Square, Inc., Blockchain.com Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, BlockFi, Fabric Ventures, Raba Partnership, MoonPay, GreenHouse Capital, and more.
Since its launch in Nigeria in 2018, the Yellow Card team has worked to make cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT Stablecoin available to anybody in Africa. With a presence in 12 nations, 110 staff spread over 16 countries, and a roughly 30X growth in users throughout Africa since the Pandemic began, the company now has the greatest geographical footprint on the continent.
What they are saying
Yellow Card’s co-founder and CEO, Chris Maurice, spoke on the importance of this round of funding for the company’s future.
“Our mission has always been to make cryptocurrency accessible anywhere and everywhere across the African continent,” Maurice said. “Now, we have the backing to make that a reality, alongside an amazing team of investors who share our vision.”
This announcement follows Chainalysis’ recent research, which ranked six African countries among the top 20 on the Global Crypto Adoption Index. Yellow Card wants everyone to realize that Africa is a key location for cryptocurrency adoption.
The new funding will be used to increase the company’s workforce and expand across the continent.
James Fitzgerald, founding partner Valar Ventures 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.”
Munachi Ogueke, Yellow Card’s Chief Bitcoin Officer said, “This raise is a validation that Africa has a major place in the crypto industry.” He added that with the access that Yellow Card brings, powered by this raise, the company can now let crypto proliferate and be a reliable enabler for people across the continent.
