According to Forbes, Africa’s Yellow Card raised $15 million in its Series A Funding Round. Yellow Card is a rapidly expanding Pan-African Bitcoin exchange cryptocurrency platform. The series led by Third Prime, Valar Ventures, and Castle Island Ventures boosted Yellow Card’s growth.
The event also witnessed participation from Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain.com, and Jack Dorsey’s Square. They played a major role in funding the operation of the exchange in twelve countries across Africa. Third Prime managed to grab a seat on the company’s board.
James Fitzgerald, the founding partner of Valar Ventures, stated that they are expecting a good response to cryptocurrencies in Africa. He made an analogy saying that the African people adopted mobile phones when there was never a large-scale distribution of landlines. They also adopted mobile payments with ease while never experiencing a large-scale payment mode through debit or credit cards. Similarly, there is potential among the masses to leapfrog an entire generation when it comes to financial technology as well.
Chris Maurice, Yellow Card’s co-founder, became interested in the African financial system when he encountered a Nigerian man waiting to send $200 to his family in Nigeria. To send $200, he paid a fee of $90 at the time. The company went live in Nigeria in 2019 with help from Munachi Ogueke, the Yellow Card’s bitcoin officer.
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, is an all-time supporter of cryptocurrency. This support was reflected in the recent fundraiser series for Yellow Card in Africa. This was reportedly the largest funding for any cryptocurrency exchange platform in Africa.
The Yellow Card has a mission to make crypto available to people who do not have access to any financial system, including crypto.
