The US and Africa-based blockchain payments startup, Bitmama has secured an additional $1.65 million in funding, bringing the total pre-seed to $2 million. In 0ctober 2021, Bitmama raised $350,000 through investors like Unicorn Growth Capital, Launch Africa Ventures, Adaverse, and Flori Ventures.
Investors Behind Bitmama
The new set of investors behind the additional pre-seed are Tekedia Capital, GreenHouse Capital, ODBA, Five35 Ventures, Chrysalis Capital, Enrich Africa, Thrive Africa, Angellist Ventures, and angel investors. However, CELO founders: Rene Reinsberg, Marek Olszewski, and Honey Ogundeyi are not left behind.
In a statement from the startup company, Bitmama aims to use the new pre-seed round to expand the company’s operational presence, strengthen its team members across different world markets, and consolidate its product offerings across Africa. From the expansion, it seeks to rapidly scale new use cases for cryptocurrency within the continent.
Where Bitmama Operates
So far, Bitmama has established its presence in African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. Bitmama enables its customers to trade several cryptocurrencies, use their debit cards for online payments, and utilities, and carry out transactions such as staking to hedge against currency depreciation.
The startup’s products include Bitmama exchange; a product that grants users access to virtual assets and explores several cryptocurrencies, and Changera which permits limitless transactions for non-crypto-savvy customers across the world.
Bitmama’s CEO Speaks on Bitmama’s Growth
Speaking With Ruth Iselema, the founder and CEO of Bitmama, she stated that Bitmama has been recording a daily increase of users and about 100 across African countries make use of the two products. Furthermore, she said “we are building Africa’s most user-friendly, innovative blockchain company, and we are glad to have the backing of seasoned investors and partners who have walked similar turfs. We are privileged to learn from their blended experiences across corporate and blockchain business verticals”.
In agreement with this, Hema Vallabh, the CEO of Five35 Ventures and founding partner to Bitmama says “being a leading female-focused VC fund, we at Five35 Ventures look forward to helping Ruth and her dynamic team scale Bitmama, especially seeing the growth of Changera, the remittance platform that allows all Africans to transact internationally at much cheaper rates than established remittance companies in the market”.
