VALR Secures $50M in Africa's Largest Ever Crypto Raise

VALR.com, a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in South Africa, today announced that it has raised $50 million (over R750 million) in Africa's largest ever crypto funding round. This values the company at $240 million (R3.7 billion).  

VALR's oversubscribed Series B equity funding round was led by Pantera Capital with participation from Alameda Research, Cadenza, CMT Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Distributed Global, GSR, Third Prime, Avon Ventures, a venture capital fund affiliated with the parent company of Fidelity Investments, along with existing investors Bittrex and 4Di Capital, and others.

VALR offers its customers the ability to safely buy, sell and store Bitcoin and 60 other cryptocurrencies—the widest selection of any platform in Africa—at some of the lowest fees in the world. VALR has processed over $7.5 billion (R115 billion) in trading volume since its launch in 2019 and now serves over 250,000 retail customers and 500 institutional clients from across the globe.

The proceeds of the raise will be used primarily to expand across Africa and into other emerging markets such as India, and to bring more products and services to its growing base of global customers. VALR is also hiring extensively across all areas of its team.

VALR has seen its valuation grow by more than 10X since it raised its $3.4 million Series A round of funding in July 2020.

VALR plans to onboard many more institutions from the traditional financial system, including the largest banks, insurers and hedge funds, to assist them with the infrastructure needed to enter the crypto asset market.