Afriex, a Nigerian Blockchain Money Transfer Service, Raises $10 Million in Series A Funding

Nigerian Fintech startup, Afriex, has closed a $10 million Series A round to expand its blockchain money transfer platform.

The latest raise comes about one year since the startup raised a $1.3 million seed round in May 2021. Afriex was founded in 2019 by Tope Alabi and John Obirije.

Valued at $60 million, Afriex runs a money transfer system that utilizes blockchain to enable users to send funds by converting them into stablecoins. This process makes the transaction free and quicker than an existing service like TransferWise which charges a 6.45% fee and can take a few days to process.

SEE ALSO: How Stablecoins Hedge Against Market Volatility

The financing was co-led by Sequoia Capital China and DragonFly Capital. In total, the following investors participated in the round:

• Sequoia Capital China
• DragonFly Capital
• Goldentree
• Stellar Foundation
• Exceptional Capital

DragonFly Capital Managing Partner, Haseeb Qureshi, praised the team behind the startup for mounting an effective way to begin the business:

“A big strength of the company is being able to straddle the entire corridor between the U.S. and Africa where many others have tried to succeed and haven’t.

The reality is that if you want to succeed in emerging markets, you need a really strong ground game.”

– Managing Partner, DragonFly Capital

While Afriex is currently just focused on its core money transfer product, Alabi has ambitious goals for the platform. He hopes to use it to launch a stablecoin and has already inked a partnership with Visa to offer Afriex users credit and debit cards later this year.

In addition, Alabi hopes Afriex will be able to give people in Africa a place to store their money that doesn’t fluctuate or get impacted by external forces as much as the current currencies do.

RECOMMENDED READING: African Blockchain-based Money Transfer Service, Transfy, Set to Go Continental After a Sucessful First Year

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