Serena Williams Invests In Nestcoin To Drive Crypto Adoption In Africa

Nestcoin, a company building products to help Africans and residents of other frontier markets understand and adopt crypto, announced the raise of $6.45 million in pre-seed funding on Feb. 1. Venture capital firms Distributed Global and Alter Global led the round.

Distributed Global invests primarily in blockchain companies, while Alter Global focuses on startups in emerging markets. Serena Ventures, Alameda Research, A&T Capital, MSA Capital, 4DX Ventures and a few other participated in the funding round.

Nestcoin is co-founded by Yele Bademosi and Taiwo Orilogbon.

Since launching in November 2021, Nestcoin has made a few different moves, which, collectively, confirms the company’s intentions of driving crypto adoption in Africa.

First, it launched a crypto education media called Breach, which will launch different initiatives to make crypto information more accessible in frontier markets. For instance, Breach is floating a program where it works with creators to produce varieties of crypto content, which, in theory, should facilitate the creation of inclusive, relatable and accessible content.

Second, Nestcoin launched Metaverse Magna, a gaming guild that, according to the company, helps its gamers earn up to $1,000 monthly. The guild currently has about 400 scholars, with plans to grow that number to 1,000 before the second quarter, according to Nestcoin CEO Bademosi, who previously served as a Binance Labs director .

Crypto gaming became famous in 2021 when Axie Infinity helped thousands of gamers in the Philippines earn up to three times the minimum wage amidst a 40% unemployment rate.

Like the Philippines, high unemployment is endemic among developing nations, and crypto gaming has created a new kind of job that could potentially include millions of people in the global economy.

Finally, Nestcoin has invested in Lazerpay, a service that allows businesses to accept crypto payments. This investment underscores Nestcoin’s goal of facilitating crypto adoption. Here’s why.

A 2021 Chainalysis report on crypto adoption in Africa cited that crypto exchanges routinely experienced an uptick in signups during periods of currency devaluation, which frequently happens in countries like Nigeria. It was a sign of people adopting crypto to preserve their buying power. Still, many people must reconvert their funds to fiat for spending because access to crypto payment is still limited on the continent. By backing Lazerpay, Nestcoin is indirectly making crypto more usable.

Nestcoin competes with a few startups across its focus area.

Metaverse Magna competes with Afriguild, another gaming startup attempting to make crypto accessible to Africans through gaming. Afriguild has more than 120 scholars, with over 200 people on its waitlist. According to founder Toyosi Abolarin, Afriguild scholars currently earn an average of $200 per month, higher than the monthly minimum wage in several African countries.

Lazerpay competes with emerging African crypto payment services, including Busha, Fluidcoin, Paychant and Payourse.