Four African blockchain startups have been selected to take part in the CV Labs Global Incubation Programme run by venture capital firm CV VC, securing US$125,000 in funding and further support.
Headquartered in Switzerland, CV VC offers seed funding and an incubation programme – CV Labs – to global tech teams in exchange for equity.
The company is now expanding into Africa in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), which intends to see CV VC build the first blockchain-focused accelerator on the continent and invest in 100 startups over the next four years.
As a precursor to this, four African startups have been selected to join CV Labs Batch_03, receiving US$125,000 in funding and access to an intensive incubation programme that delivers four blocks of learning over three months.
The four selected startups are Ghana’s Mazzuma, an international remittance and mobile money platform; Nigeria’s HouseAfrica, a digital property validation system; Egypt’s Pravica, a decentralised communication suite for enterprises; and Nigeria’s CARMA, a P2P data marketplace for the unbanked.
The programme – which also includes BlockFrauds (UK) and CO2DAO (Switzerland) – kicked off recently with “Africa Week”, which saw CV VC partner Binance Smart Chain, the University of Johannesburg, and the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative to work with the startups for a week in both Cape Town and Johannesburg.
CV Labs has already incubated 22 startups globally, and Gideon Greaves, managing director of CV VC Africa, said he was delighted to see the evolving fruition of its project with SECO to support the development of an independent blockchain ecosystem in Africa.
“We have had tremendous success since our launch and Africa is excited! We have received more applications from African startups than from the rest of the world. I believe Africa is teaching us about the true use cases of blockchain and the opportunity it presents for greater inclusion,” he said.
Nnamdi Uba, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of HouseAfrica, said the startup chose to join the programme run by CV VC because of a “shared mutual belief that blockchain technology has the power to transform socioeconomics, solve everyday problems, and of course, change people’s lives”.
“At HouseAfrica, we are building a system whereby all property transactions will be recorded in a safe, secure, and transparent manner. Nigeria is a country where data is still largely documented on paper and blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise this. We are excited to be a part of the CV Labs Incubation Programme which is the longest established incubator and the most experienced blockchain ecosystem in Europe,” he said.
