FTX backs African fintech unicorn Chipper Cash in $150M fundraise
Crypto exchange FTX has led a $150 million Series C extension fundraise for African remittance outfit Chipper Cash, according to TechCrunch.
This fresh capital injection comes six months after the fintech company closed a $100 million Series C funding round that drew investors like SVB Capital.
Chipper Cash offers feeless peer-to-peer cash transfers across several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa. The company has also begun extending its services to Europe to enable easier remittance flows from African expatriates overseas.
As part of the partnership, FTX users in Africa will soon be able to use Chipper Cash on the FTX trading platform. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried called this collaboration a “compelling use case” for both companies as it further extends the fintech outfit’s network API integration.
The partnership could also facilitate the company’s pivot to cryptocurrency payments, given its recent pilot test of digital currency peer-to-peer transfers in South Africa and Uganda.
Growing crypto adoption
The news also marks the first investment foray by FTX into the African market as crypto adoption on the continent continues to grow.
According to a Chainalysis report in September, Africa’s crypto market grew by over $105 billion between June 2020 and July 2021 with cryptocurrencies seemingly offering a viable channel for improving remittance flows.
Crypto adoption has also grown in tandem with a general expansion in fintech services on the continent that usually aim to improve access to financial services for the unbanked demographic.
