News General August 8, 2022

[Bitcoin KE] The Celo Africa Web3 Fund Inaugural Event Kicks Off in Kenya – Next Stop, Nigeria

By CryptoGuru

This is the first of a series of 4 events set to take place over the next 4 months of 2022 as Celo seeks to help Web3 projects access the needed funds to either launch or build their solutions on the Celo blockchain ecosystem.

Celo kicked off its inaugural Africa Web3 Fund event on July 25, 2022 with an informative workshop of venture capitalists and Kenyan startups seeking to raise funding for their Web3 projects and businesses.

The workshop attracted over 40 companies and startups including principals from 3 venture firms including:

Unicorn Growth Capital
Flourish Ventures
Echo VC

The Celo Web3 fund is a funding initiative that seeks to provide financial investments through its VC partners and technical assistance for projects looking to transition from Web2 to Web3.

Celo and its partners pledged to support shortlisted candidates and facilitate their transition onto the Celo ecosystem.

Among the projects that were featured includes:

M-Changa – A Web2 crowdfunding platform with over 1.5 million users in Kenya which has helped raise over $10 million for social causes
WufWuf – a P2P betting Web3 betting platform
TMX Global – a cargo logistics business that integrates shipping information about shippers, carriers, and freight forwarders

The VC discussion was quite informative and educative especially around Web3 investments.

Speaking on the opportunities in Kenya, Echo VC principal, Tsendai Chagwedera said there exists an opportunity to build a blockchain / Web3-focussed accelerator program to support the ecosystem in the country.

Speaking on the challenges faced by Web3 startups seeking funding, Flourish Ventures principal, Carr Efoyomi, advised founders to consider raising small amounts that give them a 6-8-month runway over waiting for big cheques from established VCs.

Unicorn Growth Capital principal, Duncan Muchangi, advised founders to consider timing the launch of their tokens to ensure they get the maximum impact in terms of liquidity and time-to-market.

Afterwards, there was a 3-minute speed networking session where founders met one-on-one with VCs to further pitch their projects.

Following the success of the first event, the next series of events is as follows: