Jambo, the Web3 “Superapp” with a mission to enhance the economic prosperity of Africa’s youth by democratizing access to crypto-based income-generation opportunities, has successfully raised $7.5 million in seed funding to do in Africa what “What WeChat did in China.
Jambo raised the funds from leading investors including Delphi Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, 3 Arrows Capital, Alameda Research, AllianceDAO, Tiger Global, DeFiance Capital, Hashed, Polygon Studios, UOB, Signum Capital, BH Digital, Yield Guild Games and others.
According to James Zhang, co-founder, and CEO of Jambo, “Jambo aims to empower and bootstrap the continent by offering education and earning opportunities. We have the long-term vision of realizing financial prosperity for billions across the continent and are committed to fostering the next generation of Web3 innovators, builders, and creators. Jambo serves as the gateway to Web3, but it is so much more than that. By aggregating these critical services in one ‘superapp,’ we aim to change the lives of billions.”
Jambo also boasts leading angel investors and advisors from a cross-section of the Web3 ecosystem, including Do Kwon, co-founder, and CEO of Terraform Labs; Piers Kicks, Partner at Delphi Digital; Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder and CEO of Polygon; Santiago R Santos, Web3 Investor; Kain Warwick and Jordan Momtazi from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Synthetix; and Ryan Selkis, founder & CEO at Messari. Jambo’s investors all share a belief that the Jambo superapp holds the potential to improve the continent’s educational and economic prospects dramatically through access and opportunities enabled by digital assets.
Launched in early 2022, Jambo has already signed up over 12,000 students across 15 countries to complete a curated Web3 curriculum, both online and offline, enabling students to explore opportunities in play-to-earn gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi). These programs are available at colleges and across 600+ physical partner locations. With nearly 60% of the population under 24 years of age and nearly 50% of university graduates in Africa unemployed, connecting them to these educational opportunities could lead to financial prosperity in ways Africans could never have accessed before.
A curated curriculum will lead the next generation of Africans into Web3 — providing them an opportunity to join the “Internet of Value.” By empowering users to access a secure, international, and trustless financial infrastructure, Jambo aims to foster greater financial inclusion in the continent. This will begin with financialized games, where users can engage with play-to-earn initiatives. From there, Jambo will offer access to decentralized finance (DeFi) services, from currency exchanges and remittances to yield-bearing assets.
Underpinning this mission is the notion that Africans are well-versed in the use of smartphones (with adoption expected to reach 64% by 2025) and crypto adoption is surging in Africa, making the Jambo app an intuitive and familiar inroad to the opportunities inherent in Web3.
“We believe the Jambo ecosystem will create a net positive inflow of value to local economies and leapfrog the future of innovation in Africa and we couldn’t be more excited to support Jambo along their journey!” added Kyle Davis, Co-Founder, Chairman of Three Arrows Capital.
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