Ejara, a Cameroonian fintech providing an funding app that permits customers to purchase crypto and save by means of decentralized wallets, has raised $8 million in Sequence A funding.
London-based enterprise capital agency Anthemis co-led the expansion spherical alongside crypto-focused fund Dragonfly Capital. Anthemis is a follow-on investor in Ejara, having additionally led the fintech’s $2 million seed spherical introduced final October.
Collaborating VC companies on this new financing embrace different follow-on buyers Mercy Corps Ventures, Coinshares Ventures and Lateral Capital–and new buyers comparable to Circle Ventures, Moonstake, Emurgo, Hashkey Group and BPI France. Jason Yanowitz, co-founder of Blockwoks is likely one of the angels within the spherical.
Ejara needs to “democratize entry to funding and financial savings merchandise throughout the area, utilizing blockchain expertise.” Whereas its lately launched financial savings product the place it tokenizes authorities bonds is likely one of the methods it makes use of blockchain, so is its crypto product which was pivotal to the two-year-old startup elevating $10 million in lower than 18 months.
By offering customers in Francophone Africa with an possibility to purchase, promote, change and retailer their crypto investments, CEO Nelly Chatue-Diop and her co-founder Baptiste Andrieux noticed a possibility to extend crypto exercise within the area. Nevertheless, in contrast to most crypto platforms in Africa that present custodial wallets to customers, Ejara supplied prospects the choice of non-custodial wallets so they might personal and retailer their keys. That call paid off, particularly throughout this era when the collapse of FTX and different crypto organizations proceed to underscore the necessity for patrons to prioritize privateness and possession when coping with crypto and tokenized property.
“When everybody was taking the opposite route and constructing centralized exchanges, we all the time thought that, if you wish to personal crypto, it is advisable to personal your keys. And that’s just about what’s saved us in turbulent occasions,” Chatue-Diop mentioned to over a name.
