Pan-African digital currency trading platform Yellow Card has made the announcement that its $40 million Series B investment round is now complete, headed by Polychain Capital. Other investors like as Valar Ventures, Third Prime, Sozo Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fabric Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, and The Raba Partnership are also taking part in this round of funding.
The startup plans to utilise the capital to continue its expansion throughout the continent, create new products, establish key alliances across Africa, and drive business development, according to a statement released by the company.
“For the past three years, our team has worked tirelessly to make this technology accessible to anyone and create a world-class product. This fundraise, in the current market environment, not only showcases the resilience of our team but also clearly demonstrates the appetite and necessity for cryptocurrency in Africa,” Chris Maurice, CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card, said.
Why The Investors Invested
The cryptocurrency exchange claims to have reached a few of milestones since it closed its Series A investment of $15 million in August 2021. These milestones include expanding its footprint on the continent from 12 to 16 nations and providing stock options to every full-time employee. Yellow Pay, a blockchain-based method of transferring value internationally, was one of its first products, and by March 2022, the company had more than one million paying users.
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Will Wolf, a partner at Polychain Capital, commented that the size of the round is indicative of the amount of business confidence displayed by new and current investors in the firm. This is especially true in light of the fact that fundraising activity has been on the decline recently.
“Yellow Card is the best executing team on the continent. We are impressed by the way they seamlessly adjust and adapt to the unique opportunities and demands of the various African markets. We’ve barely touched the surface of what is possible when it comes to crypto in Africa, and we’re excited for what’s to come,” he added.
A Look At What Yellow Card Does
Founded in 2016 by Chris Maurice and Justin Poiroux, Yellow Card started with an intent to create a Bitcoin gift card. Then, in 2018, Chris and Justin met a man at a Wells Fargo who was trying to send $200 dollars to his family in Nigeria. The bank charged him $90. They teamed up with Munachi Ogueke to undertake the mission of bringing Bitcoin to Africa with the objective of “basic financial services for all” and have since taken Nigeria by storm with 35,000+ merchants and over $35 million dollars in transactions as at 2020.
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Yellow Card launched in Nigeria in 2019 using the original bitcoin gift card model. It eventually shifted to a crypto-based agency banking firm, which could have been great for the man who sent $200 home. The distribution of vital financial services to customers through a network of third-party agents, known as agency banking or agent banking, has been critical in the quest for financial inclusion in Nigeria and many other African countries.
Looking ahead, the company’s ultimate goal is to become a crypto service that allows Africans to send remittances, make payments, and preserve the value of their wealth from the constant depreciation of their currencies in many African countries. This is something that a lot of cryptocurrency sites already do. Yellow Card, on the other hand, seeks to set itself apart by developing products that do not require consumers to be crypto experts.
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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://insightsbyexpert