EMURGO, the Cardano blockchain’s official commercial arm, has announced the establishment of a new Cardano ecosystem investment vehicle to fund early-stage and growth-stage startups in Africa focusing on creating socially meaningful solutions using Cardano.
“We are more focused than ever on accelerating the development of Cardano’s ecosystem with a rich mix of decentralized services catering to a global community that is increasing in overall blockchain awareness. EMURGO is dedicated to meeting this demand by providing the capital and strategic resources necessary for our portfolio companies to scale rapidly and bring new solutions to Cardano,” said EMURGO CEO Ken Kodama.
Here Is What You Need To Know
- This new Cardano investment vehicle will be made up of two independent firms, EMURGO Africa and EMURGO Ventures, both of which will have their own investment thesis and will be wholly-owned subsidiaries of parent company EMURGO Ptd. Ltd.
- EMURGO Africa seeks to provide seed finance and incubation to over 300 regional entrepreneurs in order to have Cardano’s blockchain established as the technological platform standard in Africa for socially impactful solutions.
- With a set capital allocation for seed investments into a variety of Cardano-focused startups and middleware solutions companies, including those building decentralized financial services (DeFi), non-fungible token (NFT) projects, blockchain developer education tools, and other decentralized services, EMURGO Ventures will focus on other developed markets to facilitate the building of solutions and services on Cardano.
- The incorporation of smart contracts into Cardano’s blockchain is now ready to stimulate widespread decentralized service innovation, and EMURGO’s new investment vehicle will assist this initiative through these two companies.
- EMURGO Africa and EMURGO Ventures, as subsidiaries of EMURGO, one of Cardano’s founding members, will use EMURGO’s vast experience in blockchain solutions deployment and global network of industry partners to give strategic funding to its portfolio firms, bolstering the Cardano ecosystem.
- EMURGO has made over ten direct investments in blockchain businesses through its prior cooperation with SOSV, including API3 — a data service provider for blockchains that has attracted investment from prominent blockchain funds.
- EMURGO Ventures has announced its first seed investment in Milkomeda, a dcSpark sidechain project that will use wrapped ADA (wADA) as an asset to connect Cardano and other Layer 1 blockchain protocols.
How EMURGO Africa Will Work
EMURGO Africa has announced two important agreements as part of its initial launch to rapidly build the Cardano ecosystem in Africa and use its partners’ enormous business networks.
Read also:How Egyptian Fintech Firm Fawry Is Turning Into A Major Investor In Egyptian Startups
Adanian Labs, an African venture capital firm, will collaborate with EMURGO Africa to promote impact-driven entrepreneurs as the Cardano ecosystem expands throughout the continent.
EMURGO Africa will collaborate with Adaverse, a Cardano-focused joint accelerator program in Africa with Everest Ventures, a major blockchain industry accelerator.
“EMURGO’s investments will help to shape the future of the Cardano ecosystem, a maturing network with a creative and diverse community, growing smart contract capabilities and partnerships across the globe that provide social and financial services utilizing Cardano’s provably-secure technology,” Charles Hoskinson, CEO of IOHK, said.
Global cryptocurrency adoption has surged over 880 percent and is soaring, according to the 2021 Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index, boosted by use of DeFi platforms in emerging regions. Due to a lack of access to centralized exchanges and traditional financial institutions, citizens in these markets have increasingly used DeFi platforms as their primary means of obtaining cryptocurrencies.
Read also:Paystack Integrates Apple Pay for Nigerian Businesses
How To Apply For Seed Investments And Partnerships
African startups and businesses interested in seed funding and partnerships may apply here: https://emurgoafrica.vc/
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer