US venture capital firms Draper Associates and Greycroft Partners alongside existing investors have injected $2.5m in BitPesa, a pan-African bitcoin startup. 

Digital Currency Group, Pantera Capital Management, Blockchain Capital, Zephyr Acorn, Future\Perfect Ventures, Colle Capital and BnkToTheFuture have also participated in a Series A investment round.

Tim Draper, Founder of Draper Associates, said: “BitPesa is well positioned to dominate the huge market opportunity for digital payments across Africa and beyond. It takes a locally-based team to work in the evolving landscape of frontier market financial services, and BitPesa’s approach to investing in teams, infrastructure, and compliance from Lagos to London gives them a strong advantage,”

BitPesa is a pan-African platform redefining how businesses make payments to and from sub-Saharan Africa. 

Focused on using cutting-edge blockchain technology to increase efficiency across markets, BitPesa opens corridors for business payments and trade between Africa and the rest of the world.

Many businesses across Africa have struggled to find a low-cost, reliable solution for making global payments with African currencies. 

Overseas and even pan-African payments take weeks to settle and rack up unbelievably high fees. 

BitPesa was launched in 2013 in Kenya, with a mission to connect African payment infrastructure with the rest of the world. 

Today, the startup is operating in Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, the UK, the DRC and Senegal, having raised a total of nearly $6m.

Individual and business customers send and receive payments through BitPesa’s direct integrations with over 30 currencies. 

With 9000+ Users and 34,000+ transactions, BitPesa continues to save customers time, hassle and money. 

With this new funding, BitPesa is focused on becoming the largest licensed payment company in the UK, Europe and Africa that offers real-time settlement at wholesale FX rates to frontier and emerging markets. 

Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO of Bitpesa, said: “We work in unique markets with huge untapped opportunities for the right teams and shareholders that can execute on a vision. Our new investors share our vision and are able to add value to our team in our current and expansion markets.”