MARA, a pan-African crypto exchange platform that intends to “expand the number of Africans who may join in the crypto economy,’’ has announced that it has completed a $23 million equity and token seed round from numerous investors. The fundraising round contains high-profile crypto and web3 investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research (FTX) and Distributed Global.
Additional VCs in the round include TQ Ventures, DIGITAL, Nexo, Huobi Ventures, Day One Ventures and Infinite Capital and DAO Jones (investment DAO supported by Mike Shinoda, Steve Aoki and Disclosure), while over 100 other crypto investors participated too.
Why The Investors Invested
Investors invested in the startup, in part, because of a partnership deal has recently struck. The company announced in a statement that it had formed a partnership with the Central African Republic, which was the first nation in Africa to recognize bitcoin as a legitimate form of currency and the second nation in the world to do so after El Salvador. The partnership will make the company the Central African Republic’s official crypto partner and an advisor to the president on crypto strategy and planning.
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“The government is working through multi-year multi-step processes that will allow them to address infrastructure issues. And then, once those infrastructure challenges have been addressed, it’ll be quite easy for folks to use the Mara wallet,” CEO Chi Nnadi. “We’re there to advise the President on improving their technology infrastructure so that they can bring on widespread crypto adoption. So that means advising them to expand internet access and mobile phone adoption and working in an advisory capacity since they’re the first African country to adopt bitcoin.”
According to Nnadi, his company will engage more African governments, including those that have a stance against cryptocurrencies like Nigeria and Kenya, to see the benefits of blockchain and assist in drafting licensing regimes for crypto companies to operate in their countries. Nnadi says his company will do this because his company will help more African governments see the benefits of blockchain.
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“We are pleased to partner with MARA as it embarks on building a digital financial system for Sub-Saharan Africa,” says Schuster Tanger, co-founder of TQ Ventures, one of the investors, in a statement. “With the right resources, this region has potential for mass adoption of cryptocurrency. To that end, the local knowledge and specialized skills of the MARA team is quite promising.”
A Look At What MARA Does
MARA asserts that it is in the process of developing a suite of products that will cater to a variety of crypto-finance requirements for the African market. A consumer crypto-brokerage software that enables users to purchase, send, sell, and withdraw fiat and crypto assets is the company’s main product and the product that has brought it the most success. The first phase of the company’s rollout is scheduled to begin in Kenya and Nigeria, which are also the locations of its headquarters, in the month of July of this year.
MARA says that consumers do not require any prior crypto knowledge in order to use its retail app, but the reality is that local solutions like this exist in abundance in Africa, including the Coinbase Ventures-backed VALR and Yellow Card, which are both based in Kenya. However, what may set apart the Web3 newcomer from the competition are its subsequent items.
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It plans to deploy the MARA Chain in the fourth quarter of this year. The MARA Chain is a layer-1 blockchain and Alchemy-esque platform that will be powered by the native MARA token. This platform will allow software developers to create decentralized applications in Africa. MARA intends to launch a pro-exchange for sophisticated traders sometime in the first quarter of 2023. These traders make use of technical analysis and prefer a full set of trading options to the traditional exchange options that are available on MARA’s retail app. MARA’s pro-exchange will cater to traders with these preferences.
“What we’re doing is we’re creating financial infrastructure for people to build their lives. And so it’s more than just being able to buy crypto; it’s about African engineers creating their [own] projects. We want to be the source for incubating talent; we want to give them the platform through our exchange to launch their projects,” said co-founder and CEO Chi Nnadi on MARA’s unique selling proposition.
Kojo Annan and Tatiana Koffman serve as board advisors in addition to their roles as members of the executive team. Other members of the executive team include Llinás Mnera, Dearg OBartuin, and Kate Kallot. These individuals have held executive positions in the past at companies such as Amazon, PayPal, Uber, NVIDIA, Founders Bank, and Rappi.
Before joining MARA, Nnadi oversaw the operations of Sustainability International, a charitable organization that coordinated community-driven approaches to addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. While he was traveling back and forth between Nigeria, his home country, and the United States, he spent some time in Africa, where he became aware of the social and financial challenges that plague Africans who live in remote areas, as well as theories about how bitcoin and blockchain technology might be able to assist.
MARA African crypto MARA African crypto
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh