Luno - Afrikan Heroes

Luno Plans For Possible Listing, Appoints New CEO

March 30, 2023

Luno has appointed its chief operating officer, James Lanigan, as its new CEO as it readies to seek new funding and eyes a stock market listing.

Lanigan will replace Marcus Swanepoel, who moves into the role of executive chairman, Luno said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company, which has its roots in South Africa but which is now headquartered in London, said Swanepoel, who co-founded the business and has been its CEO for the past 10 years, will work closely with Lanigan “to guide Luno’s vision and strategy while focusing on broadening Luno’s investor base to support its next stage of growth”.

Luno chief operating officer, James Lanigan — James Lanigan

Luno has hired Canaccord Genuity Group to help bring on new institutional and strategic investors

“As part of this process, Luno has hired Canaccord Genuity Group to help bring on new institutional and strategic investors alongside Digital Currency Group (DCG) to fund scaling, support expansion, accelerate market share gain and prepare the company for an eventual public listing.”

Luno did not say on which financial market or markets it might seek to list.

In his five years at Luno, Lanigan has helped lead its operations, commercial activities, countries, product, marketing and customer success departments.

Luno is a wholly owned investment of the Barry Silbert-founded and -led DCG, which bought the company in 2020.

In 2022, DCG subsidiary Genesis Trading found itself exposed to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, losing about US$175-million in the bankruptcy. Its Genesis Global Capital unit last November halted customer withdrawals after the business reportedly experienced a run on its deposits.

DCG also owns crypto news site CoinDesk and Grayscale Investments, a digital currency asset management business, among other assets.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Why South Africa’s Luno Wants To Shed 35% Of Its Workforce

January 30, 2023

Luno, a global crypto-currency company, will reduce its workforce by 35%. CEO Marcus Swanepoel of the South African-born Luno wrote to staff members in an internal communication that the business is changing the size of its team across all of its markets to survive the present “crypto winter.”

The Digital Currency Group (DCG)-owned business will lay off 35% of its workforce as a result of the unexpected and extremely bad events that have affected the global crypto market over the past few months, he said.

Following a string of unfavourable incidents, including market unrest, the closure of some significant crypto exchanges, and a lack of regulation that weakened investors’ faith in cryptocurrencies, the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies plunged in 2022.

“It is with deep regret that I have to announce we will be reducing our overall Luno team by 35%, impacting Lunauts in all of our regions,” said the CEO’s memo. “2022 has been an incredibly tough year for the broader tech industry and in particular the crypto market. Luno, unfortunately, hasn’t been immune to this turbulence, which has affected our overall growth and revenue numbers.

“As a result, we have to readjust our focus to maintaining our leadership position in our core markets, and continue to lay a strong yet sustainable foundation for the business, as we prepare to come out of this current cycle in a very strong position.”

Swanepoel claims that the company’s “unfortunate” choice was caused by the worldwide economic slump, an even greater decline in the ICT sector as a whole, and a series of shocks that collectively had a compounding effect on the industry.

He added that other explanations include the demise of FTX, which was once the fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, and the sharp decline in the price of the Luna cryptocurrency over the past few years.

“This, in turn, has impacted us indirectly in a number of ways: on the capital side, a significantly more constrained funding environment, with the market’s focus shifting from long-term investment to shorter term profitability, and on the operating side, a negative impact on market sentiment and consequently on growth and revenue for our business, along with all of our peers and competitors.”

Additionally, Luno disclosed that its co-founder and CTO Timothy Stranex had departed the business after nearly ten years in order to work on personal projects.

The original team of Luno, which includes Swanepoel, Pieter Heyns, and Carel van Wyk and founded the business in 2013, also included Stranex, who left in December. Seven years later, the US-based crypto juggernaut DCG bought it.

Beginning in January, Luno named Simon Ince, a former vice president of engineering, as its new chief technology officer.

“Coming from a background of leading diverse, multi-disciplinary engineering teams for tech-industry leaders such as at Microsoft, stepping into the CTO role at Luno is a hugely exciting opportunity for me,” comments Ince. “I will lead Luno’s global engineering team as we continue to build a simple, intuitive app that promotes a safe and reliable experience for our 10 million customers across the globe. As Luno explores and innovates with new products to elevate this experience, we will also continue to develop the talent of our engineering team for success.”

Kenyan Healthtech Zuri Health Raises New Funding From Moroccan VC UM6P Ventures

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

South Africa’s Central Bank Says Banks Can Work With Crypto Exchanges

August 19, 2022

The South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Prudential Authority this week has reportedly issued guidance to confirm that banks in the country can work with crypto exchanges. This is according to the international crypto exchange Luno. Marius Reitz, GM for Africa of Luno says the company welcomes this guidance note by a major central bank.

The Prudential Authority also apparently points out that severing relationships with crypto companies may have unintended consequences, such as reduced levels of transparency and challenges with managing risks such as money laundering.

“In stark contrast to other central banks globally, the SARB and other authorities have shown an intent to lead the way both within Africa and internationally in terms of this guidance provided to the banking industry, thereby allowing the rapidly evolving industry to flourish,” says Reitz.

“As we have seen in other markets globally, denial of banking facilities to cryptocurrency companies such as Luno would move the industry underground and/or offshore, and therefore outside the reach of even the best regulation.”

Luno says the cryptocurrency industry has driven economic growth and financial inclusion in South Africa. The exchange says that the industry has created jobs, attracted foreign investment, and generated significant tax revenues for the country.

Banks are critical service providers to cryptocurrency businesses and enable the public to safely and easily purchase crypto with their local currency.

One of SA’s largest banks unbanked Luno along with other cryptocurrency platforms in March 2020. The bank did not provide specific detail around the risk identified other than to say its decision to close crypto-linked accounts was due to the absence of regulation in the cryptocurrency industry. Other banks followed.

Luno says it had a banking relationship in place with Standard Bank to continue to support ZAR deposits and withdrawals. The exchange holds multiple crypto-specific licences and registrations globally and says it is committed to working with SARB to bring purpose-fit regulation to the local industry.

“This is a positive step for the growth of the industry. Luno has always maintained that regulation is necessary for the sector to grow responsibly with the confidence and protection of consumers,” Reitz concludes.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

The Cryptocurrency Year in Review – Record Highs and Growing Maturity

January 5, 2022

By Marius Reitz

The cryptocurrency world in 2021 was buoyed by a number of high-profile institutions and businesses investing in crypto at far greater scale than previously seen, driving crypto’s evolution into what is now a multi-trillion-dollar asset. Bitcoin and ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, recorded new all-time highs and El Salvador became the first country to adopt crypto as legal tender.

All-time highs

The bitcoin price burst through its all-time high of US$68 000 on 5 November, showing a massive increase on the $28 000 range in which it was trading in December last year. But the crypto market also took some brutal hits. Cryptocurrencies are still a new alternative asset class and volatility is expected to characterise crypto for a while yet.

Marius Reitz is the General Manager for Africa at Luno — ***Marius Reitz, General Manager for Africa at Luno***

Businesses and institutions get on board

In the US, where regulation allows for entry into crypto, sophisticated firms like Fidelity, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are entering the crypto market and the Proshare Bitcoin ETF (world’s first bitcoin ETF) saw record inflows into the fund.

Microstrategy, the Nasdaq-listed business intelligence company, continued to buy additional bitcoin during the year and now has holdings worth about $6-billion. The move was widely viewed as a green light from corporate US for crypto.

Fintech and traditional payment providers began to adopt blockchain and crypto solutions, with giants PayPal, Venmo, Mastercard and even Twitter allowing customers to transact in bitcoin. In South Africa, Capitec and Discovery Bank formed partnerships to list crypto as a new product offering.

Maturity

Digital assets and crypto businesses showed massive growth and significant market cap gains, indicating maturity in the sector. Coinbase debuted in 2021 as the biggest digital asset listing in history, coming to market at twice the valuation of Nasdaq. This has been positive for the industry, increasing trust and transparency. Having a public company of this size shows those crypto-related businesses — and the crypto asset class — should be taken seriously. The crypto sector is now valued at more than $3-trillion.

Crypto’s value for emerging economies

El Salvador became the first country in the world where bitcoin is considered legal tender, which means that retailers are legally obliged to accept it as payment. The move was met with fierce support and fierce criticism, but it does confirm the value of cryptocurrencies as a way for developing economies to bypass a global financial system which relies on unfavourable loans and is geared towards the world’s richer countries and individuals.

Crypto as an asset vs payments use case

On Luno, the number of monthly active customers buying or selling crypto doubled from last year. We’re seeing customers hold their crypto for on average 10 months, compared to an average of just three months in 2017. This is perhaps an indication that we are in the early stages of moving away from pure speculation to some customers seeing longer-term value.

While we’re still in the asset phase, we are seeing slow but continuous growth.

Regulation

Globally, we have seen movements to regulate crypto. Draft regulations were announced in 2021, and South Africa’s regulators have taken a pragmatic approach to regulating crypto. Luno is in favour of regulation of the sector and believes that the adoption of regulations will result in positive spinoffs for the industry.

Globally, a number of central banks have issued digital currencies. Nigeria launched the e-Naira in 2021 and South Africa is investigating a digital currency, which shows central banks bringing crypto closer.

Marius Reitz is the General Manager for Africa at Luno

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

South Africans Are “Extremely Bullish” About Crypto

September 30, 2021

South Africans seem to be quite savvy and bullish about crypto. This is the position of cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Luno which recently conducted a survey of over 1000 of its customers in South Africa in August 2021, along with customers in the UK, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Luno found that 82% of South Africans who hold cryptocurrency on its platform expect the bitcoin price to rise significantly, some believe as high as $100,000. Currently, bitcoin is trading at around $43,600 today after reaching $50,000 at the end of August.

Marius Reitz, Luno’s GM for Africa, says the overall sentiment is extremely positive, with 61% of SA customers indicating their intention to hold their investment (hodl in crypto-speak) or buy any price dips over the next six months. South Africans are most optimistic about Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Luno has also seen an increase in active customers in South Africa, with the number of users who have bought or sold crypto on the platform up 140% over the past 12 months.

Total bitcoin trading volume across several exchanges in South Africa was around $25-million traded in the past 24 hours as of Thursday, 30 September, around 56% of which was on Luno. Crypto Investors Look Towards the Long Term.

Reitz cautions, however, against the perception of crypto investors as extreme risk-takers seeking only short-term gains.

“Just 14% of South African customers say they plan to day-trade for short-term profit for the rest of the year. On average, existing Sotcouddhduth African customers are holding their crypto for eight months before cashing out. In addition, we are seeing more South African customers planning how to invest their money. Over the last three months, more than one in 10 (12%) of Luno’s active South African customers have made use of the repeat buy function, which allows you to automatically purchase a set value of crypto at daily, weekly or monthly intervals. On average they are buying around R400 worth of crypto a month,” he says.

Luno’s South African data correlates with online global research by YouGov among 6,642 respondents across six countries. It reveals that, contrary to popular misconception, not all people view crypto as a short term get rich quick opportunity and increasingly more investors hold it as part of a diversified portfolio.

The national picture shows that the importance of having money is focused on long term goals, most commonly to fund their family’s wellbeing (64% of SA respondents), for greater flexibility in life generally (55% of SA respondents) and save for their retirement (39% of SA respondents). In addition, South African adults have been indicating that banks (49%) and specialist financial media (36%) were trusted sources for investment decisions.

“New insights indicate that the stereotypes around cryptocurrency investors may not hold true. Instead, we are seeing that South Africans who own crypto are saving more regularly, have longer-term goals and are more financially savvy. Although we operate in over 40 countries, Luno views Africa as one of, if not the most promising region for the adoption of cryptocurrencies due to its particular combination of economics and demographics,” concludes Reitz.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

South African Crypto Startup Luno Acquired By World’s Largest Blockchain Investor

September 10, 2020

Good news for founders and investors in leading South African cryptocurrency exchange, Luno. Digital Currency Group (DCG), a global enterprise that builds, buys, and invests in blockchain companies, has announced that it has acquired the company, 7 years after it was started.

“The past seven years have been an incredibly exciting journey for Luno — helping millions of our customers get access to crypto for the first time,” said Luno founder Marcus Swanepoel. “DCG has been an integral part of the Luno story during all of this time, and we’ve been fully aligned on our vision and culture since day one. Having the full backing of DCG just as we’re experiencing such a pivotal moment of growth in the industry is not just an exciting and important milestone for Luno, but more importantly it will significantly accelerate our ability to reach our goal to help upgrade 1 billion people to a better financial system by 2030.”

Co-founder and CEO, Luno, Marcus Swanepoel

Here Is What You Need To Know

Nothing is however changing in the leadership team of the company as Luno’s team will remain intact and Swanepoel will lead acquisition efforts in his role as CEO. DCG enables its subsidiaries to operate as independent companies, providing leadership, partnership, and investment capital to help scale the businesses.
The New York-based DCG, through the acquisition, will also be making a significant financial commitment to help Luno expand globally, both in geographies where Luno currently operates and beyond.
The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Throughout its seven years in existence, Luno has been backed by global tech giants such as the Naspers Group, Balderton Capital amongst others.

Why DCG Placed Its Bet On Luno Through The Acquisition

A lot of factors are into play, including that Luno seems to have achieved a lot within the period it has been in existence. It also seems that DCG, a previous investor in Luno in its seed round in 2014, has been immensely impressed by the company’s performance.

Based in London and with regional hubs in Singapore and Cape Town, Luno has grown significantly in recent years, with nearly 400 employees and more than five million global customers spanning over 40 countries, all factors obviously attractive to any investor.

“We are proud to have supported Luno as an early investor, and we recognize a shared commitment to building mission-driven companies that can help transform traditional financial services and improve economic freedom for people all over the world,” said DCG Founder and CEO Barry Silbert. “Luno is a high growth, global business and there is a massive opportunity to expand organically and through acquisitions.”

“We have been extremely impressed with Marcus and the Luno team since we made our initial investment,” added Silbert. “Marcus understands our culture and appreciates how well Luno fits into the DCG family. He is a focused, high integrity leader and exactly the kind of person we want running one of our companies at this critical moment when the crypto industry is at an inflection point.”

DCG is an investment firm that has backed more than 160 blockchain companies around the world. In addition to its venture portfolio, DCG is the parent company of several wholly-owned subsidiaries, including Grayscale Investments (the world’s largest digital currency asset manager), Genesis (a leading digital asset prime brokerage), CoinDesk (the preeminent media and events company in the industry), and the recently-launched Foundry, which provides institutional expertise, capital, and market intelligence to bitcoin miners and manufacturers.

A Look At What Luno Does

Founded in 2013 by co-founder and CEO Marcus Swanepoel and Chief Technology Officer, Timothy Stranex, Luno has become a digital asset powerhouse in many emerging and frontier markets, providing digital asset education, knowledge, and investment tools for individuals in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Luno has also helped broaden the global crypto investment community and the company has seen record growth of its customer base in 2020. The company is a leading exchange in several countries that have the highest percentage of cryptocurrency ownership, including South Africa (third-highest percentage of its citizens owning digital currencies), Nigeria (fifth-highest), Indonesia (sixth-highest), and Malaysia (tenth-highest).1

Luno maintains regional offices in Kuala Lumpur, Lagos, Jakarta, and Johannesburg, and will continue to focus on the existing geographies where it operates across Europe, Africa, and Asia. The Luno team has also developed an aggressive road map for future growth and will ultimately compete with financial services firms globally. Luno is actively hiring for positions all over the world.

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