$50 M Series B received by SA crypto exchange VALR to expand across Africa

VALR, a South African cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired a $50 million Series B fundraising round, valuing the firm at $240 million. The funds will be used to expand across Africa.

VALR is a digital asset platform that was launched in 2019 and allows clients to buy, trade, store, and transfer Bitcoin and 60 other cryptocurrencies – the most of any platform in Africa – in a simple and safe manner. Over 250,000 individual users and 500 institutional clients from across the world use it, and it has processed over $7.5 billion in trading activity.

Pantera Capital led a $50 million Series B fundraising round that was oversubscribed, with participation from Alameda Research, Cadenza, CMT Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Distributed Global, GSR, Third Prime, and Avon Ventures, as well as previous backers Bittrex and 4Di Capital and others.

The funds will be used to expand throughout Africa and into other emerging areas such as India, as well as to provide new goods and services to VALR’s increasing worldwide client base. In addition, the business is actively hiring across the board.

“Society’s financial tools should unite us, not divide us. That’s why I’m very excited that VALR is helping to build a financial system that recognises the oneness of the human race. There is no longer any room for doubt regarding the impact crypto assets are having on our global financial system,” said Farzam Ehsani, VALR’s CEO and co-founder.

“We already help VALR’s customers enter this new world of crypto from the traditional financial system using their USD or ZAR and I’m very excited that this round of funding will allow us to serve so many more across Africa and the world.”

Pantera Capital partner Paul Veradittakit expressed his enthusiasm about leading the Series B round.

“We believe that Africa’s future is bright for the adoption of cryptocurrencies for both asset diversification and payments,” he said. “VALR brings an amazing product and service to onboard both retail customers and institutions.”