NestCoin, a Nigerian Web3-focussed entity, has secured $1.9 million in funding led by Hashed Emergent.
1/ I am excited to announce that @Nestcoin has successfully raised a $1.9M strategic round. This is a vote of confidence in our mission to create universal access to world-class financial services. pic.twitter.com/Slwb2ZuHzM
— YB 🟢 🟡 🔴 (@YeleBademosi) September 7, 2023
The strategic funding round included the following investors:
- Hashed Emergent
- Alter Global
- Magic Fund
- CMT Digital
- 4DX Ventures
- Base Ecosystem Fund (Coinbase)
- Adaverse Accelerator (Emurgo)
The funding is expected to help NestCoin scale Onboard, a non-custodial wallet, across Africa.
Onboard helps users securely store and protect their crypto assets, in contrast to central exchanges like Binance and Coinbase where users entrust a third-party to secure their assets.
Onboard claims to have over 10,000 but it will not diclose its transaction volumes yet on the P2P merchant marketplace.
According to Yele Bademosi, the Founder and CEO of NestCoin:
“We believe this is the future of modern finance. People will shift to not trusting some third party or middleman to hold their assets,” said Bademosi.
“We also have many innovative features in the coming weeks. Rewards, credit and being able to pay or receive payments quickly are a few as we use underlying blockchain technology.”
Some of the differentiating factors of Onboard from other self-custody wallets such as MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Ejara, includes:
- Ue of emails instead of seed phrases to access private keys
- A virtual card to allow users to spend stablecoins across 160+ countries
- A P2P marketplace where merchants can earn profits by trading digital assets
Base Ecosystem Fund, which invests in and supports early-stage projects built on Base, the low-cost developer-friendly Ethereum Layer 2 chain, has invested in Onboard.
The goal of Base, wich was developed by Coinbase, is to ‘make onchain the next online and onboard over 1 billion users into the crypto economy.’ Onboard will be integrated into Base ecosystem of decentralized applications (dApps).
Speaking about this milestone funding, Bademosi said:
“Onboard was part of 15 global brands that took part in the launch of Base, including Coca-Cola, Atari, Open Sea and Optimus. We were the only sort of African brand and project. And I think we’re the fund’s second investment globally.
The problem we’re solving is global. One thing people should expect from us over the coming months is an intentional push beyond the continent’s shores.”
✨The @BuildOnBase Ecosystem Fund announces its first six investments✨
👇Let's see which projects have been selected! pic.twitter.com/IBa4MrzAAb
— Base Universe 🛡 (@UniverseOnBase) September 7, 2023
Speaking about the investment, Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base, said:
“We’re grateful to be building on Base with Nestcoin and proud to support them with the Base Ecosystem Fund. We’ve been inspired by their work creating Onboard, empowering people across Africa to come onchain and experience increased access, freedom and opportunity.
We are excited to work together to bring the next million builders and billion users onchain together.”
NestCoin has transitioned from a venture studio and investment holding company into a single-product company following a lack of success in its previous products, Breach, a Web3 media platform, and Brunch, a crypto-based group messaging tool, as well as the lose of millions in cash and stablecoins following the collapse of FTX, a major investor in Nestcoin in early 2022.
NestCoin raised $6.45 million in February 2022 to build out Web3 solutions for Africa.
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