- South Africa’s largest exchange by trading volume, VALR, just concluded its Series A funding round.
- The exchange managed to raise around $3.45 million, or 57 million rands.
- The exchange now plans to expand its product and service offering, and conquer new markets.
South African crypto industry is developing rapidly, and plenty of foreign investors are keeping a close eye on the situation. Meanwhile, one of the country’s largest crypto exchanges has made a move that will allow it to improve its offering and expand further.
VALR raises $3.45 million in Series A funding
The exchange in question, VALR, recently held a Series A funding in which it raised around $3.45 million, or 57 million rands.
The round saw plenty of investors, but the leading one was 100x Ventures, which acts as the investment arm of BitMEX’s and HDR Global Trading’s new holding firm, 100x Group.
Apart from 100x Ventures, there were other noteworthy participants, including the former CEO of First Rand’s First National bank, Michael Jordaan, Bittrex, and a venture firm 4Di Capital.
Jordaan stated that he is very proud of the exchange’s successful round, as it can be quite difficult for a startup to raise this much money.
Meanwhile, BitMEX’s CEO, Arthur Hayes, noted that South Africa is a fast-growing and exciting crypto ecosystem, which makes VALR quite well-placed to capitalize on the region’s growth of Bitcoin trading.
The exchange plans an expansion
According to VALR, the exchange plans to use the newly obtained capital to expand its list of products and services. It appears to be particularly interested in lending and derivatives trading.
Other than that, the exchange also plans to expand into new markets across South Africa, improve its compliance, technology, as well as client service functions.
So far, the exchange offered Bitcoin-rand trading, starting a little over a year ago, in June 2019. In this time, the exchange claims to have become South Africa’s leading Bitcoin exchange platform by trading volume. It supposedly services over 40,000 customers, and it traded over $120 million (13,000 BTC).
