Serena Williams Invests in Nestcoin to Make Crypto Mainstream in Africa

Wednesday, 02/02/2022 | 07:33 GMT by Nicholas Otieno
  • Nestcoin Raised $6.45 Million in the latest funding round
  • The funding will enable the African crypto firm to drive crypto adoption.
Nigeria
Nigeria

On February 1, Nestcoin, Nigeria’s investment firm, announced it raised $6.45 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Venture capital firms Distributed Global and Alter Global. Serena Ventures, MSA Capital, A&T Capital, 4DX Ventures, Alameda Research, and a few others also participated in the fundraise.

Serena Ventures is owned by tennis star Serena Williams who herself purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT just a few weeks ago.

Nestcoin plans to use the funding to deliver tech stacks, projects and innovation to Africa. Nestcoin portfolio includes a crypto education media, a gaming guild, and a blockchain-based payment gateway. Since launched in November 2021, Nestcoin has made a few different moves, which demonstrates the company’s plan of driving cryptocurrency adoption in Africa.

Nestcoin first launched a crypto education media project called ‘Breach’ which seeks to launch different initiatives to make crypto information more accessible in African markets. Nestcoin also established Metaverse Magna, a gaming guild, which helps its gamers earn up to $1,000 monthly. The crypto firm also has invested in Lazerpay, a blockchain-based payment gateway that allows businesses to accept crypto payments . This investment highlights Nestcoin’s goal of facilitating crypto adoption.

Nestcoin competes with other few startups across its area of business focus. Its Metaverse Magna competes with another gaming startup, Afriguild, which tries to make cryptocurrency accessible to Africans through gaming. Its Lazerpay also competes with various emerging African crypto payment services, including Payourse, Paychant, Fluidcoin, Busha, and Fluidcoin.

Cryptocurrency Adoption in Africa Grows

African nations have struggled for a long time with infrastructure problems, which have made financial services less accessible. However, cryptocurrency is becoming a good alternative to traditional banking in Africa, because this only requires a smartphone. Between July 2020 and June 2021, crypto adoption in Africa grew 1200%, thus making the continent the fastest adoption rate in the globe. However, with regards to overall values traded, the continent is still lagging behind other regions. For the year ended June 2021, Africa transacted $105.6 billion worth of crypto assets, and this was driven by peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in major growth markets. Markets such as Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania had some of the highest crypto adoptions in the world and ranked in the top 20 Global Crypto Adoption Index.

Since 2016, trading volumes for several African currencies have especially increased on Paxful and LocalBitcoins and Paxful, the world’s largest P2P platforms. Currently, such P2P platforms are commonly used in Nigeria and Kenya where users use them to bypass stringent financial regulations that curtail cash transfers from banks to crypto businesses.

On February 1, Nestcoin, Nigeria’s investment firm, announced it raised $6.45 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Venture capital firms Distributed Global and Alter Global. Serena Ventures, MSA Capital, A&T Capital, 4DX Ventures, Alameda Research, and a few others also participated in the fundraise.

Serena Ventures is owned by tennis star Serena Williams who herself purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT just a few weeks ago.

Nestcoin plans to use the funding to deliver tech stacks, projects and innovation to Africa. Nestcoin portfolio includes a crypto education media, a gaming guild, and a blockchain-based payment gateway. Since launched in November 2021, Nestcoin has made a few different moves, which demonstrates the company’s plan of driving cryptocurrency adoption in Africa.

Nestcoin first launched a crypto education media project called ‘Breach’ which seeks to launch different initiatives to make crypto information more accessible in African markets. Nestcoin also established Metaverse Magna, a gaming guild, which helps its gamers earn up to $1,000 monthly. The crypto firm also has invested in Lazerpay, a blockchain-based payment gateway that allows businesses to accept crypto payments . This investment highlights Nestcoin’s goal of facilitating crypto adoption.

Nestcoin competes with other few startups across its area of business focus. Its Metaverse Magna competes with another gaming startup, Afriguild, which tries to make cryptocurrency accessible to Africans through gaming. Its Lazerpay also competes with various emerging African crypto payment services, including Payourse, Paychant, Fluidcoin, Busha, and Fluidcoin.

Cryptocurrency Adoption in Africa Grows

African nations have struggled for a long time with infrastructure problems, which have made financial services less accessible. However, cryptocurrency is becoming a good alternative to traditional banking in Africa, because this only requires a smartphone. Between July 2020 and June 2021, crypto adoption in Africa grew 1200%, thus making the continent the fastest adoption rate in the globe. However, with regards to overall values traded, the continent is still lagging behind other regions. For the year ended June 2021, Africa transacted $105.6 billion worth of crypto assets, and this was driven by peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in major growth markets. Markets such as Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania had some of the highest crypto adoptions in the world and ranked in the top 20 Global Crypto Adoption Index.

Since 2016, trading volumes for several African currencies have especially increased on Paxful and LocalBitcoins and Paxful, the world’s largest P2P platforms. Currently, such P2P platforms are commonly used in Nigeria and Kenya where users use them to bypass stringent financial regulations that curtail cash transfers from banks to crypto businesses.

About the Author: Nicholas Otieno
Nicholas Otieno
  • 238 Articles
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About the Author: Nicholas Otieno
Nicholas Otieno is a FinTech writer who shares the latest news on financial instruments, forex trading, stock markets, investments, cryptocurrency, blockchain, fiat currencies, financial analysis, as well as commentary analysis about big-name companies which matter to investors.
  • 238 Articles
  • 24 Followers

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