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Crypto Valley Venture Capital Launches African Blockchain Early-Stage Fund
The venture capital investor published a report that found funding for African blockchain startups far outpaced investment in other venture funding.
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:19 p.m. Published May 23, 2022, 6:44 a.m.
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DAVOS, Switzerland – Crypto Valley Venture Capital, which also calls itself CV VC, is launching an Africa-focused fund to support blockchain startups on the continent, the investor announced Monday at the Blockchain Hub adjacent to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The fund is to invest in 100 startups in the African continent over the next four years, CV VC said in a press release. According to the announcement, CV VC has invested in 12 startups where "blockchain use cases go far beyond cryptocurrencies to drive Africa's future to date." The investor aims to raise between $10 and $50 million through the fund.
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Among the 12 startups CV VC has already invested in are Leading House Africa, a startup from Nigeria that will allow land registration on the blockchain, and Mazzuma, a mobile payments platform from Ghana. According to Olaf Hannemann, co-founder and chief investment officer of CV VC, most startups are expected to originate from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Egypt but it is open to funding projects from the entire continent.
“We just want the best ideas from everywhere,” Hannemann said.
On Monday, CV VC published the African Blockchain Report, which highlighted the growth of the blockchain sector in Africa. According to the report, on a year-on-year basis, funding for African blockchain startups outpaced the growth in general African venture funding by 11 times.
Africa is a fast-growing crypto market, attracting large investments from the crypto sector, according to the report. Earlier this month, Pan-African centralized crypto exchange Mara raised $23 million, led by Coinbase Ventures and Alameda Research. Central African Republic recently adopted bitcoin as legal tender.
Swiss-headquartered CV VC is in a public-private partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Switzerland's labor market authority.
Read more: Web 3 Needs Africa, Not the Other Way Around
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