Bitcoin News and Finance Kenyan Fintech Startup Kotani Pay Receives $2 Million Pre-Seed Funding Skip to main content

Kenyan Fintech Startup Kotani Pay Receives $2 Million Pre-Seed Funding

Kenyan Fintech Startup Kotani Pay Receives $2 Million Pre-Seed Funding

The Kenyan fintech startup Kotani Pay has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round which was led by P1 Ventures. The capital raised will be used to fund the startup’s expansion into five African countries. Felix Macharia said his firm is working with central banks, some of whom “are actually getting excited about some of these use cases and are getting involved.”

New Capital to Fund Kotani Pay’s Africa Incursion

The Kenya-based digital currency on- and off-ramp service provider, Kotani Pay, recently raised a $2 million pre-seed funding round, a report has said. The round was led by the San Francisco-based seed investor P1 Ventures with the participation of Digital Currency Group/Luno and Flori Ventures.

According to a Techcrunch report, Kotani Pay will use the capital raised to fund its expansion into five African countries: Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania. The successful capital raise also enables Kotani Pay to make good on its promise to make cross-border remittances much easier for the African continent’s unbanked population.

In addition to seeking to make the transfer of remittances across borders easier, the Kenyan startup is involved in efforts aimed at bringing financial services to Africa’s refugee population. Kotani Pay has also developed software which enables feature phone users to send funds via its platform.

Working With Regulated Entities

While the fintech startup’s use of blockchain and stablecoins when moving funds across borders is likely to attract the attention of regulators, Kotani Pay co-founder Felix Macharia said working with regulated entities has helped to clarify certain things about their operations.

“We either work directly with the local mobile money operators or ride on the charter of regulated partners to ensure that our operations are compliant. Central banks are actually getting excited about some of these use cases and are getting involved as they develop central bank digital currencies,” said Macharia.

The co-founder added that with time more African countries will join the likes of Botswana, Mauritius, and South Africa, which all have put in place regulations to govern digital assets firms.

Register your email here to get a weekly update on African news sent to your inbox:

What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl...

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju...

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and...

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r...
Blogarama - Blog Directory