Africa’s Largest-ever Crypto Exchange Funding Bagged by VALR

Key Insights

• VALR raised $50 million in the most significant funding round for an African crypto firm. 
• The funding round was led by Pantera Capital alongside Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, and others. 
• The new funding will help the firm expand into more countries in Africa as well as emerging markets like India. 

As stated by the company, the South African crypto exchange, VALR, has raised $50 million in the largest funding round ever for an African crypto firm. The funding round values VALR at $240 million, a 10x rise in its valuation from July 2020, when it raised $3.4 million.

VCs Backing VALR

Pantera Capital led VALR’s Series B equity funding round with Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, Cadenza, CMT Digital, Distributed Global, GSR, Third Prime, and Avon Ventures. Avon ventures is a venture capital fund associated with the parent company of Fidelity Investments.

The African crypto exchange claims to have processed over $7.5 billion in trading volume since 2019. Additionally, the company highlighted that it caters to over 250,000 retail customers, most located in South Africa, and 500 institutional clients. 

VALR currently has about 420 Bitcoin (BTC), amounting to $18 million in trading volume from 69 trading pairs, according to CoinMarketCap. The exchange’s users can trade and store BTC and 60 other cryptocurrencies.

Expansion on Cards

As per statements from the company, the new funding will be used to expand into more countries in Africa. Funds will also be set for investment into other emerging markets such as India.

Furthermore, the exchange said that it would also bring more products and services to its existing customers and allow the company to hire more people.

Thus, expanding existing business and development into other geographies seems on VALR’s cards. Notably, emerging Southeast Asian markets are mushrooming with crypto exchanges as mass adoption appears to rise. 

VALR CEO and co-founder Farzam Ehsani in an official statement said: 

“VALR is helping to build a financial system that recognizes the oneness of the human race. There is no longer any room for doubt regarding the impact crypto assets are having on our global financial system.”

Ehsani also expects to increase the number of institutional customers such as banks and insurance providers that use VALR’s platform to provide the crypto infrastructure they may need in the future.