Pan-African Crypto Exchange Yellow Card Raises $40M In Series B Funding Round

Pan-African crypto exchange Yellow Card has secured $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Polychain Capital, an investor in protocols and firms in the blockchain space.

According to the official announcement from Yellow Card on Monday, it has raised almost $57 million total, including all previous investments, making it the firm with the highest capital raised in the blockchain space in Africa.

The Series B round of the Pan-African crypto exchange was joined by Valar Ventures, Third Prime, Sozo Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fabric Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, The Raba Partnership, Jon Weiner, Alex Wilson, Pat Duffy, and others.

Chris Maurice, CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card, said that the success of the exchange was a result of "relentless hard work toward a common goal."

"For the past three years, our team has worked tirelessly to make this technology accessible to anyone and create a world-class product. This fundraise, in the current market environment, not only showcases the resilience of our team, but also clearly demonstrates the appetite and necessity for cryptocurrency in Africa," Maurice added.

Yellow Card was founded in 2019 in Nigeria and since then has expanded to 21 countries in the African continent. The exchange allows customers to invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and other cryptocurrencies.

Since the previous funding round in August 2021, the crypto exchange has expanded services to Gabon, Senegal, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and also granted stock options to every full-time employee. The exchange also launched Yellow Pay, a "crypto-powered way to send value across borders."

As per a previous announcement, Yellow Pay surpassed 1 million users in March this year.

"We've barely touched the surface of what is possible when it comes to crypto in Africa, and we're excited for what's to come," said Will Wolf, Partner at Polychain Capital.