Nigerian Blockchain Startup Bitmama Closes $2 Million Pre-Seed Round

After raising $1.65 million via a pre-seed extension, Bitmama, a Nigeria-based blockchain startup, has now closed its pre-seed funding round at $2 million, a report has said. Leading the funding round were two Africa-focused venture capital firms: Unicorn Growth Capital and Launch Africa.

New Funding to Help Bitmama Scale Up Crypto Use Cases in Africa

A Nigeria-based blockchain startup, Bitmama, recently closed its pre-seed funding round at $2 million after it added $1.65 million to the $350,000 that was raised in October last year. According to a Techcrunch report, the funding round was led by two Africa-focused venture capital (VC) firms, namely, Unicorn Growth Capital and Launch Africa.

Also participating in the fundraise were existing and new investors such as Adaverse, Flori Ventures, Tekedia Capital, Greenhouse Capital, ODBA, Five35 Ventures, Chrysalis Capital, Enrich Africa, Thrive Africa, and Angellist Ventures. Angel investors that participated in the round include Rene Reinsberg, Marek Olszewski, and Honey Ogundeyi.

According to the report, the blockchain startup will use the funds raised to bolster its team as well as to integrate its product offerings. The funds will further be used to help Bitmama scale up use cases for cryptocurrency on the African continent.

Buying and Selling Crypto on Bitmama

In remarks following the announcement, Ruth Iselema, a founder and the chief executive officer at Bitmama, said:

We started Bitmama to make it easy for anyone across the African continent to buy and sell cryptocurrency. But as time passed, we saw a couple of use cases we could employ this technology to solve.

As per the report, some of the cryptocurrency use cases identified by Bitamama include the purchase of airtime or paying for utilities using crypto. Also, to help small businesses affected by foreign exchange restrictions, the startup said it has availed “virtual dollar cards for Nigerians to make international purchases.”

Meanwhile, Iselema is also quoted in the report suggesting that Bitmama is planning to introduce a “couple of innovative products” which will be the first in the market.

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Terence Zimwara

Terence Zimwara is a Zimbabwe award-winning journalist, author and writer. He has written extensively about the economic troubles of some African countries as well as how digital currencies can provide Africans with an escape route.