Nestcoin, a firm that produces, operates, and invests in web3 applications, and founded last November, has secured a $6.45 million pre-seed round.
Two of the most important drivers of crypto adoption on the continent are peer-to-peer transactions and retail trade. Yele Bademosi and Taiwo Orilogbon, the founders of Nestcoin, previously spearheaded the charge at Bundle Africa, one of the continent’s most well-known crypto trading platforms.
When Bademosi decided to start Bundle as CEO in 2019, he was the director of Binance Labs in Africa, handling the incubation and development of blockchain initiatives. The company’s chief technical officer was Orilogbon.
The Digital Currency Group can help you understand how Nestcoin works (DCG). LUNO, CoinDesk, and Bitso are among the more than 60 crypto and blockchain businesses and assets held by the Connecticut-based venture capital and holding company.
However, while DCG concentrates on western markets and developing custodial solutions for HNIs and institutional clients, Nestcoin primarily develops, invests in, and manages web3 and non-custodial products that are more accessible to regular people in frontier countries.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi), media, digital art, and gaming are all covered under Nestcoin’s offerings.
Last year, the business, which Bademosi defines as a venture collaborative, formed its Breach media department to provide bite-sized and educational crypto material for the typical African.
Metaverse Magna (MVM), a gaming guild that introduces members to the world of play-to-earn crypto-powered games like Axie Infinity, was also established.
Since 2020, the NFT-based online video game produced by Sky Mavis has been a hit, but it is costly to play.
MVM has purchased Axies and loaned them to members of its guild, with a revenue-sharing agreement in place. According to the firm, these individuals can earn up to $1,000 each month in the end.
MVM has received almost 2,000 applications since its start, according to Bademosi. However, just 400 gamers are now using the platform, which he hopes to raise to 1,000 by the end of the year.
Nestcoin also plans to launch its DeFi projects in the second quarter of this year.
In addition, the company will look into ways for platform content providers to earn cryptocurrency while educating the site’s 6,000 customers through defined learning courses.
The company’s pre-seed round, which is now the second-biggest in Africa and the largest in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa, will provide it with the resources it needs to develop these and other products in its pipeline.
A portion of the funding will be used to sponsor web3 projects. The company has done so in a few initiatives, but the only one that has been made public is Lazerpay, which allows businesses to accept crypto payments. It recently supported AltSchool Africa, a startup that introduces Africans to software engineering and web3 courses like blockchain.
Nestcoin has also become involved in other projects, such as cooperating with Bitsika, a crypto-exchange platform, to produce a social token for Davido, an African musician.
Nestcoin, according to Bademosi, may form an independent fund to invest in and participate in such partnerships and projects in the future.
With employees in nine countries, the company has attracted key web3 and traditional investors to support its objective.
Distributed Global, Alter Global, Serena Ventures, A&T Capital, MSA Capital, 4DX Ventures, Raba Capital, Goat.vc, Old Fashion Research, CMT Digital, Electric Capital, Social Capital, CoinFund, gumi Cryptos Capital, and DeFi Alliance are among them, while Ventures Platform, Future Africa, and Voltron Capital are among the local investors in the round.
