African Cryptocurrency Startup MARA Raises USD 23 Mn Seed Round

MARA, a pan-African crypto exchange platform that wants to increase the number of Africans who can participate in the crypto economy, has announced that it has completed a seed round of USD 23 Mn in equity and token sale from multiple investors including high-profile crypto and web3 investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research (FTX) and Distributed Global.

Other VCs in the round include TQ Ventures, DIGITAL, Nexo, Huobi Ventures, Day One Ventures, Infinite Capital, and DAO Jones (investment DAO backed by Mike Shinoda, Steve Aoki, and Disclosure), while about 100 other crypto investors also participated.

MARA plans to build a suite of products that address various crypto-finance needs for the African audience. Its flagship product is a consumer crypto-brokerage app that allows users to buy, send, sell and withdraw fiat and crypto-assets. The company is targeting an initial launch in July this year in Kenya and Nigeria, the two countries in which it is headquartered.