South Africa’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform – VALR has secured a seed fund of ZAR57 million ($3.4 million) to further push its quest to advance cryptocurrency exchange in Africa, and launch new products.
VALR was launched in 2018 with the aim of connecting South Africa to the cryptocurrency world.
The Series A round of funding was led by 100x Group and South African based 4Di Capitals. Other participant in the funding are US based company – Bittrex, and Micheal Jordan’s Montegrey capitals.
The fund, according to South African based VALR, would be used to expand the exchange platform into new territories around Africa, while also creating new products to be used all over the continent. VALR is also working on plans to create a team of professionals in technology regulatory and compliance, as well as client service domain.
The CEO and Co-founder of VALR, Farzam Ethsani says:
“I am very grateful that despite the challenging global COVID-19 pandemic that has adversely affected many businesses around the world, VALR has been able to grow at a phenomenal pace, and we’ve been able to raise funds and partner with a set of world-class investors, adding to our already distinguished group of shareholders”.
Justin Stanford, the co-founder of 4Di capitals also made comments on how the company has been looking for appropriate investment in the cryptocurrency sector.
Mr Stanford further said that 4Di is delighted to be backing a high-quality business such as VALR.
“VALR has shown great integrity and leadership, coupled with impressive growth, and delivers a mature, institutional-grade offering to the local market. This is becoming a necessary component in all markets the world over, as the crypto-asset ecosystem becomes increasingly more accepted and integrated into the global financial system.”
In 2019, weetracker reported that VALR secured funding of $1.5 million from US based Bittrex. The funding was used in the launch of VALR, which is a digital asset trading platform in South Africa. At that period, VALR had listed about 50 digital coin.