Cameroon’s Ejara raises $2M to offer crypto and investment services in Francophone Africa

摘要： The adoption of cryptocurrency in Africa varies regionally. While countries with currently unstable currencies like the naira are seeing immense usage, other regions using the CFA franc have sparse adoption.

▲圖片標題(來源：Ejara)

A region of more than 200 million people using the CFA franc, Francophone Africa is one of the most crypto-friendly markets in Africa. But only a few players are taking advantage of the market, which can make a case as the next frontier for mobile money and investment apps in Africa.

To that end, Ejara, a one-year-old company founded by Nelly Chatue-Diop, has raised $2 million to pioneer the usage of crypto and investment services in the region.

CoinShares Ventures and Anthemis Group led the round. They are joined by Mercy Corps Ventures, Lateral Capital, LoftyInc Capital and NetX Fund. Two angel investors — Pascal Gauthier of Ledger and Jason Yanowitz of Blockworks — and a syndicate social fund also participated.

While founder and CEO Chatue-Diop studied and later held a couple of high executive roles in Europe in the space of 10 years, she had a nudge to come back to Francophone Africa to start a company. That nudge was a culmination of past events mixed with present opportunities.

Growing up in Douala, Cameroon, Chatue-Diop’s family experienced a life-changing experience when France devalued the CFA franc in 1994. According to her, this plunged her family (and millions of others) into financial crisis.

“I was really young and we were part of the middle class. Overnight all our savings dwindled and the aftermath was that the government couldn’t even pay salaries,” she said to TechCrunch over a call. “So even at that tender age, I asked myself how we managed to do everything right and still end up in that zone. So it stayed on my mind.”

In 2015, she got acquainted with blockchain and thought it was the perfect technology to solve the problems she faced while growing up. “It helped me understand that people could regain full control over their savings, income and they could protect and grow their wealth,” she said.

So, she partnered with a long-time friend and serial entrepreneur, Baptiste Andrieux, to start Ejara in Cameroon and the larger Francophone region.

Typically, cryptocurrencies in Francophone Africa are reserved for a few elites who wish to diversify their assets. Ejara wants to level this playing field for the average French-speaking African so they can invest as little as 5,000 CFA (~$9).

“The built-in transparency and security of the blockchain combined with the popularity of mobile banking in Africa made it clear to me that a blockchain-based mobile investment platform was the key to expanding financial inclusion,” said the CEO. “But as all these crypto companies were popping up left and right, I felt very few were speaking to Francophone Africans like myself.”

轉貼自： Tech Crunch

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