South Africa’s largest crypto exchange, VALR, has raised $50 million in a Series B round of equity funding. It is the largest funding round in the history of an African crypto company.
The firm plans to utilize the new money to expand into more African countries as well as emerging markets like India.
With the new funding, VALR’s valuation has grown 10x from July 2020, when the company raised $3.4 million.
Funding for the Series B round was led by Pantera Capital in partnership with Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, Cadenza, CMT Digital, Distributed Global, GSR, Third Prime, and Avon Ventures. Avon Ventures operates as an investment fund affiliated with Fidelity Investments.
The African crypto exchange claims that it has processed more than $7.5 billion in trading volume since 2019. Furthermore, the company stated that it serves over 250,000 retail customers, most of whom are in South Africa, and 500 institutional clients.
According to CoinMarketCap, VALR currently has about 420 Bitcoin (BTC) and is trading in 69 trading pairs for about $18 million. Users of the exchange can trade and store BTC as well as 60 other cryptocurrencies.
According to the exchange, more products and services will be available to its existing customers and more employees will be hired.
Expanding existing business and entering new geographies seem like a logical next step for VALR. There is a proliferation of crypto exchanges in emerging Southeast Asian markets as mass adoption appears to be growing.
VALR CEO and co-founder Farzam Ehsani in an official statement said: “VALR is helping to build a financial system that recognizes 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.”
VALR’s platform will also be used by financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies in the future for crypto infrastructure.