AZA Finance (BitPesa) Among 7 African Companies Included in FTX’s Investment Portfolio of $25 Million – The Highest of All

AZA Finance, a pan-African global crypto payments and foreign exchange fintech, was one of 7 African companies included in an Alameda Research private equity portfolio, a new report by the Financial Times newspaper shows.

In a November 2022 spreadsheet obtained by the newspaper, AZA Finance (BTC Africa S.A) is listed on the 39th row, with an investment type of ‘promissory note’ and an investment amount of $25,000,000.

 Spreadsheet by Financial TimesAccording to Financial Times, the portfolio was being offered as collateral in an attempt to secure a new credit line for the stricken group in November 2022. The full document contains nearly 500 investments across 10 holding companies for a total of $5.276B.

The African companies on the list include:

• Ovex ($5 million from FTX at a $122 million valuation)
• AZA Finance ($25 million promissory note/loan)
• African mobile money unicorn, Wave ($10 million in equity)
• South African crypto exchange platform, VALR ($4 million equity)
• Nigerian crypto exchange startup, Bitnob ($500,000 from FTX at a $20 million valuation)
• NestCoin ($250,000 equity from FTX at a $30 million valuation)
• Congolese-based web3 startup, Jambo ($500,000 in tokens)

FTX had named BTC Africa S.A. and other AZA Finance entities in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing before a quick redaction.

“Our entities are not part of the FTX bankruptcy. In its disorganized haste, FTX erroneously listed our entities in their bankruptcy filing,” AZA said.

According to AZA Finance, the fintech had a commercial partnership with FTX whereby the exchange “utilized its stable and efficient infrastructure to pay out to a small number of customers in Africa.” Other initiatives had been discussed between the two firms but were yet to be launched, AZA said back in November.

It is thought that some of FTX’s and Alameda’s portfolio companies didn’t receive the full amount of investments stated in the financials due to the ensuing insolvency.

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