Pan-African centralized crypto exchange MARA raised $23 million on Wednesday. The funding round was led by Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Distributed Global, Day One Ventures, TQ Ventures and others, according to a press release.
MARA plans to invest in a range of products targeting Nigeria and Kenya, Africa's two largest countries, before expanding into East Africa and Francophone countries, CEO Chi Nnandi said.
MARA is trying to crack the burgeoning crypto scene: Cryptocurrency in Africa grew by $106 billion in the year to June 2021, according to World Economic Forum estimates; MARA is looking to expand it further.
Crypto in Africa
In an interview, Nnandi said he is trying to change the narrative expressed by Yuval Noah Harari in Homo Deus: that poor countries will be left behind as new technologies emerge. That idea "lit a fire under him," he said.
He's trying to do that by developing products that allow users to not only trade cryptocurrencies (like MARA's upcoming Android app and advanced trading platform), but also to develop their own Web 3 products.
Nnandi said MARA plans to host post-launch hackathons to inspire developers to "build Web 3 engineering communities."
MARA is also launching a Layer 1 chain powered by its own MARA token. MARA will launch its testnet in Q4.
The expansion of cryptocurrency products into new regions brings new regulatory challenges. According to Nnandi, this is due to a lack of understanding of digital currencies and their role in the global economy.
This is one of the reasons why MARA plans to assist the Central African Republic with its new bitcoin law.