Crypto Hedge Fund Pantera Enters Africa With Valr Exchange Backing

(Bloomberg) -- Pantera Capital backed African crypto exchange VALR.com in its latest funding round, valuing the company at $240 million in the U.S. group's first foray into the continent. 

VALR.com raised $50 million, the largest amount by a crypto firm in Africa to date, according to Chief Executive Officer Farzam Ehsani. The money will be used to expand operations in Africa and India, he said. 

The Johannesburg-based VALR.com started operations in 2019 and is one of Africa's biggest crypto exchanges. It facilitates $7.5 billion worth of annual trades in more than 60 digital currencies, including Bitcoin and Ether. 

Crypto has started to boom in Africa, particularly in Nigeria and South Africa, where nearly a fifth of the population own some form of digital assets. That compares with the global average of just over 10%, according to the latest data from Finbold. 

While crypto assets in the two countries are often used as a hedge against volatile national currencies, the lack of regulatory framework on the continent remains a hurdle for companies, investors and institutions. South Africa is planning to provide the market with crypto regulations this year, Bloomberg reported earlier.  

VALR.com, together with rival Luno, account for about 95% of all Bitcoin-rand trades, Ehsani said. Luno, now owned by Digital Currency Group, recently said it plans to further expand in the U.S. 

A number of other investors, including Alameda Research, Cadenza, CMT Digital and Coinbase Ventures, participated in VALR.com's funding round. It plans to work with other financial institutions to develop infrastructure. 

Proceeds from the funding round will also be used to hire staff for expansion and to add products and services, Ehsani said. 

VALR's early backers include Bittrex Inc., the Seattle-based exchange founded by a trio of Amazon.com Inc. alumni, and Michael Jordaan, the former CEO of FirstRand Ltd.'s First National Bank.

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