VALR Raises $50M in Largest Funding Round for an African Crypto Exchange

South African cryptocurrency exchange VALR has raised $50 million in Series B equity funding, marking the largest ever funding round for an African cryptocurrency exchange.

With its latest funding round, VALR’s valuation has grown to $240 million, a 10-fold increase from the $3.4 million it raised in its July 2020 Series A round. This round of financing was led by venture capital firm Pantera Capital, with participation from Alameda Research and Coinbase Ventures.

VALR claims to have processed over $7.5 billion in transaction volume since 2019, from over 250,000 retail clients and 500 global institutional users. The exchange currently sees around 420 BTC (about $18 million) in trade volume from 69 trading pairs, according to CoinMarketCap.

The funds from this round of financing will be used to expand VALR’s business to other emerging African markets and India, launch more products for its users, and hire more talents.

“Society’s financial tools should unite us, not divide us,” VALR CEO and co-founder Farzam Ehsani said in an official statement shared with Cointelegraph on March 1. He added:

“VALR is helping to create a financial system that recognizes the oneness of humanity. There is no longer any room for doubt about the impact of crypto assets on our global financial system.”

Ehsani also expects an increase in the number of institutional clients such as banks and insurance providers using the VALR platform to provide the cryptographic infrastructure they may need in the future. Ehsani says:

"Crypto-assets will become increasingly important to all of our lives. VALR will help our clients move from the old financial system to the new."

Although the crypto market has been volatile so far this year, investment in crypto projects has not slowed down. On Feb. 27, the South Korean government announced $187 million to build a national metaverse platform, while The Graph (GRT) launched a $205 million fund on Feb. 17, aimed at attracting developers to its platform.

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