Bitmama, a blockchain payments firm with operations in the US and Africa, has secured an additional $1.65 million, bringing the total amount obtained in its pre-seed round to $2 million.

In October 2021, investors including Unicorn Growth Capital, Launch Africa Ventures, Adaverse, and Flori Ventures contributed to Bitmama’s inaugural $350,000 pre-seed round.

CELO founders Rene Reinsberg, Marek Olszewski, and Honey Ogundeyi, as well as new investors Tekedia Capital, GreenHouse Capital, ODBA, Five35 Ventures, Chrysalis Capital, Enrich Africa, Thrive Africa, Angellist Ventures, and others, have participated in the fresh round of funding.

Read also Why African Crypto Startup Bitmama Raised $350k Pre-seed Round From New VC, Flori Ventures

The funds from the new pre-seed round will be used to improve the company’s workforce in key regions, streamline the company’s product line, and map out expansion plans in Africa, according to a statement. The goal of this growth is to significantly increase the number of bitcoin applications across the continent.

Why The Investors Invested

Since its inception, the firm has seen significant growth. Bitmama’s creator and CEO Ruth Iselema has said that the company is quickly nearing 100,000 customers across the African market and is registering remarkable daily active users.

For Five35 Ventures, founding partner Hema Vallabh stated: “Being a leading female-focused VC fund, we at Five35 Ventures look forward to helping Ruth and her dynamic team scale Bitmama, especially seeing the growth of Changera, the remittance platform that allows all Africans to transact internationally at much cheaper rates than established remittance companies in the market.”

A Look At What Bitmama Does

Bitmama, which is now available in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, allows its customers to trade several cryptocurrencies, utilise debit cards for everyday online purchases, pay utilities, and engage in staking as a means of protecting themselves against currency depreciation.

Read also Nigerian B2B Payment Platform Duplo Raises $4.3M In Seed Capital

Bitmama is an exchange that gives consumers access to virtual assets and a variety of cryptocurrency use cases; Changera is a social payment solution that gives customers who aren’t familiar with cryptocurrencies access to their money at any time, anywhere in the globe.

“We are building Africa’s most user-friendly, innovative blockchain company, and we are glad to have the backing of seasoned investors and partners who have walked similar turfs. We are privileged to learn from their blended experiences across corporate and blockchain business verticals,” she added.

Bitmama payments

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

Bitmama, a female-led African crypto startup, has raised $350,000 in a pre-seed round. According to the business, the funding would allow it to expand its operational footprint, increase its personnel, and enter new markets across Africa.

Flori Ventures, a San Francisco-based VC, led the round, which included Nigerian investment fund Emergence Capital, Fedha Capital, and a slew of other VCs and angel investors.

“The rate of crypto adoption in Africa has been surprisingly fast but anticipated. All over Africa, more than 3 million users now perform crypto transactions on the day-to-day. Most importantly, we are thrilled to have strong financial backers with global credibility and track records, who are keen on supporting our mission to ensure crypto and cross-border transactions across Africa are done efficiently and safely for users and businesses,” said Ruth Iselema, Bitmama CEO. 

The startup intends to use the funds to expand into Francophone African countries, Kenya, and Europe.

Read also Twitter Has Launched Bitcoin Tipping Feature

Why The Investors Invested

The startup has garnered considerable traction. With over 15,000 active customers across its two offers, Bitmama has processed over $6 million in transaction volume this year. 

“We’ve partnered with Bitmama to help them in their growth journey. We are particularly interested in projects that explore universal basic income, community commerce, community currencies, natural-capital-backed currencies, accessible DeFi primitives, earnings platforms, peer-to-peer marketplaces,” said Maria Alegre, General Partner/Co-founder, Flori Ventures.

Just co-founded in April 2021 by Maria Alegre, Flori Ventures is a seed-stage startup fund that invests in innovators who are working to make the financial system more inventive, regenerative, decentralized, and inclusive.

The VC invests mostly in startups being built on the Celo ecosystem, of which Bitmama is one.  

A Look At What The Startup Does

Bitmama, founded by Ruth Iselema in 2019, provides a secure blockchain infrastructure that allows users from all around Africa to conduct cryptocurrency transactions. At the present, the startup is only active in Nigeria and Ghana.

The platform allows for the exchange and selling of cryptocurrencies as well as cross-border payments. Changera, the company’s cross-border payment option, allowing users to send and receive money worldwide, buy airtime and data, and pay utility bills from anywhere on the planet.

After being duped out of $250,000 while trading Bitcoin, the CEO, a professional pharmacist, ventured into the Blockchain industry. This inspired her to create Bitmama, a cryptocurrency exchange site. 

The startup, which is situated in Germany, now employs roughly 15–20 remote workers.

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