Seychelles-based crypto exchange, KuCoin, received 33.8% of crypto and blockchain VC funding to Africa in 2022 as the continent saw one of the highest blockchain funding growth rates of any region globally, a new report says.
Kenyan crypto startup, @kotanipay, received $500,000 in Q1 2023 with a total funding of $1.3 million up to date.
Check out the full African blockchain and crypto funding report for Q1 2022 – Q1 2023https://t.co/6SNcbGFiq5 pic.twitter.com/5b6Wix3kCo
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) April 22, 2023
According to the African Blockchain Report 2022 by CV VC, KuCoin raised $160 million in 2022 to become the first of two blockchain unicorns that year.
Ethereum L2 solution, Scroll.io (also registered in Seychelles), raised $30 million in 2022 and was the other fresh unicorn.
The report, published in collaboration with South Africa’s Standard Bank, shows a five-fold increase in funding for the continents blockchain sector, compared to the previous year.
Key report highlights:
- African venture funding grew by 34% to $3.14 billion as global funding fell 35% to $415 billion
- $26.8 billion was raised globally across blockchain deals – up 4%
- $474 million was raised in Africa across blockchain deals – up 429%
- Custody & Exchanges was the highest-funded category in Africa with a 52% share, followed by Fintech (24%) and Infrastructure & Development (14%)
- Africa had its first blockchain Unicorns, KuCoin and Scroll
“African blockchain startups raised a total of $474 million in 2022, an annual YoY funding increase of 429% compared to the $90 million in 2021. Africa has a higher funding growth rate than any region. In the US, funding was similar to 2021 at $15.2 billion, while Asia and Europe’s funding increased by 50% and 35% YoY to $4.74 billion and $4.88 billion, respectively.”
Seychelles and South Africa were the top African countries that attracted blockchain venture funding, representing 81% of the total funding:
- Seychelles raised $208 million
- South Africa raised $177 million
Below are the top funding destinations.
While in 2021 $49.5 million (55.3%) of total funding went into seed rounds, this category declined to $44.4 million in 2022, and represented just 9.4% of all the money raised.
In 2022, 90% ($426.65 million) of the funds raised went into later rounds, experiencing a >10x increase from $38.3 million in 2021.
Custody and Exchanges are the most attractive sector for investors, followed by fintech:
- Custody and Exchanges: 52.4%
- Fintech: 24.3%
- Infrastructure and Development: 14.3%
- NFTs, Gaming and Metaverse: 6.8%
- Defi: 0.8%
- Energy: 0.7%
- Data Management, Verification, and Analytics: 0.5%
- Proptech: 0.1%
According to Gideon Greaves, Managing Director CV VC Africa, the future of Africa and its infrastructure looks increasingly promising as cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology continue to address many of the continent’s fundamental challenges. The surge in adoption shows no signs of slowing down.
“Africa is not only the ultimate crypto continent but also one of the world’s fastest blockchain technology-adopting and developing regions,” said Greaves.
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