Nigerian startup secures $2.3m fund to acquire licences, develop new products

A Nigerian-based cryptocurrency startup, Canza Finance, has closed a $2.3 million round to support the development of its DeFi products, including the newly launched Baki.

Polychain Capital led the round, with other investors, including Protocol Labs, Blizzard Fund, 99 Capital, Stratified Capital, and Hyperithm, African Fintech Review, reported. 

Canza Finance’s latest funding comes about two years after it raised $3.27m in a seed round to offer cryptocurrency-based services in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

Pascal Ntsama and Oyedeji Oluwole (CTO) founded the DeFi-focused neobank in 2020 to improve the efficiency of cross-border settlement in Africa.

When it first launched, it planned to assist African companies — many of which had trouble obtaining foreign exchange — in using cryptocurrency to settle international trades.

The startup helped companies and local foreign exchange agents, known as “Aboki” informally, settle payments for goods and services by collaborating with on- and off-ramp partners in multiple countries.

Canza uses Baki to help businesses swap their currencies to the dollar without incurring high forex fees.

Canza generates revenue by charging 1% of each transaction processed. Baki, the startup’s synthetic FX exchange on-chain protocol — a new system for digitally converting currencies without the need for actual money — aims to reduce transaction fees to 0.2%, according to African Fintech Review.