BitFury announced on Monday that it has invested in BitPesa, a universal payment and trading platform for the African continent, via its investment wing BitFury Capital.
The platform allows individuals and businesses to send payments to and from African countries; namely, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Tanzania. BitPesa accepts Bitcoins from anywhere in the world and exchanges it for local African currencies.
In addition, BitPesa offers a service to convert the local African currencies into international currencies with the use of Bitcoin, hence removing the dependence on the US dollar as a means of exchange (which can be very expensive).
Why BitPesa?
On the occasion, the CEO and co-founder of BitFury, Valery Vavilov commented:
“Our mission is to make global transacting easier, especially for those who continue to face obstacles to financial growth”.
Further explaining why BitFury invested in BitPesa, Vavilov elaborated:
“A secure, transparent and trusted form of exchange is being made possible by BitPesa, and our investment will allow us to work together to leverage the innovative power of the Bitcoin Blockchain for the benefit of the entire African continent.”
Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO of BitPesa commented:
“It has been great to have the support of the BitFury Group, who work extremely hard to build community among companies working with bitcoin, large and small. Valery and his team have a long history working in frontier markets and nothing is more important to our team than an understanding and support of the work we do.”
Investment Helps Spread Bitcoin
Will this investment of BitFury in BitPesa help popularize Bitcoin in African countries?
Jeffrey A Tucker, who is a distinguished fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, said:
“This is a strong vote of confidence for BitPesa, and an illustration of how the growth of blockchain technology is going to take place in unexpected ways. The network effects of government monies are far weaker in developing countries, so it makes sense that new technologies can and will be more quickly adopted.”
Simon Dixon, CEO of BnkToTheFuture.com, which is also an investor in BitPesa commented:
“BitPesa is succeeding in what Bitcoin has the true potential to achieve— bringing financial inclusion to those underserved by banks. Kenya has less than 3% credit card penetration and remittances to and from Africa can cost up to 12%. BitPesa is offering several countries in Africa the opportunity to leapfrog banking and significantly reduce their cost to remit money globally. It may take a while to have the impact mobile money had on Kenya, but we believe that BitPesa will help drive adoption of Bitcoin in the African region where its potential for change is great. We were very happy to invest alongside BitFury Group and the professional FinTech investors on BnkToTheFuture were very quick to join the round too.”