Yellow Card, a Nigerian-based crypto exchange, has raised over $1.5 million to further expand across Africa and solidify its position as the go-to crypto exchange in Africa.
Yellow Card’s CEO Chris Maurice said the 1.5 million was raised from Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain, Celo, and among others. The firm will use the funds to grow its operations in Nigeria, South Africa and Botswana where it launched a few months ago.
The firm will also expand availability to users in Kenya and Cameroon from Sept. 1.
Founded in 2016 by Chris Maurice and Justin Poiroux as Bitcoin gift card, Yellow Card pivoted to remittance after the founders met a man at a Wells Fargo trying to send $200 dollars to his family in Nigeria at an unjust fee of $90.
“We decided to undertake the mission of bringing Bitcoin to Africa with the objective of “financial inclusion for all”, and since then with the help of our partner Munachi Ogueke we’ve taken Nigeria by storm with 20,000+ merchants and over $25 million dollars in transactions,” said the firm at the launch in Botswana and South Africa.
In November, Yellow Card announced it had received an investment from Metal VC to facilitate its growth into other African markets and the continued development of new features on the Yellow Card platform.
The parent company of Metal Vc, Metal Pay, was founded in 2016. It allows users to send money instantly and rewards them for each transaction. Users are rewarded in MTC coin, which is Metal’s native currency.
Yellow Card aims to be synonymous with cryptocurrency in Africa and wants to reach people who have previously been left out of the crypto revolution.
“Yellow Card’s mobile-first, cryptocurrency-enabled suite of products allows users to transfer value, store value, or remit value at significantly lower costs and with higher speed and better security than incumbent, legacy services provide,” said Polychain Capital CEO, Olaf Carlson-Wee, in a statement. “We’re excited about the ways in which crypto can help modernize Africa’s financial infrastructure and better serve its peoples.”
According to the firm, Jason Marshall, a former Walmart senior director of payment services will be joining it as its chief product officer.
