Africa gets the first two blockchain unicorns

by Arthur · April 26, 2023

Out of it 3.14 billion dollars funds raised by African businesses in 2022 of 570, $474 million was attracted by blockchain firms from 29 deals. Among these web3 companies are the first two blockchain African unicorns – Kucoin and Scroll. While there have been unicorns in Africa in previous years, the continent has just received its first two blockchain-based unicorns.

In accordance Resume VC, the criteria to be a unicorn is to be a private technology company valued at $1 billion and above, which is either headquartered in Africa or has the bulk of its operations on the continent. Based on this, Kucoin and Scroll became the first two blockchain unicorns.

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Kucoin

KuCoin is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017 and headquartered in Singapore. It offers a wide range of cryptocurrencies for trading, including popular coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, as well as lesser-known altcoins.

It has its own cryptocurrency, called KuCoin Shares (KCS), for which holders of KCS are entitled to a portion of the trading fees generated by the exchange, as well as other benefits such as discounted trading fees and access to exclusive investment opportunities.

KuCoin has also developed a mobile app that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies on the go, as well as trading robots and algorithms to help users optimize their trading strategies. However, users should exercise caution and conduct thorough research before trading on the platform.

The firm with an operational head office in the Seychelles offers trading (spot trading, margin trading, P2P fiat trading, futures trading and P2P fiat trading), staking and lending covering 700 digital assets for 27 million users in 207 countries and regions.

KuCoin raised over $150 million in investments in 2022, valuing it at 10 billion dollars. It is one of the top 5 crypto exchanges and Forbes named it one of the best crypto exchanges.

Roll

Scroll is an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution that improves network performance by improving transaction throughput and lowering gas prices, enabling efficient and smooth blockchain transactions.

The firm handles Ethereum layer 2 network transactions to help Ethereum on its own network, then sends the transaction data back to Ethereum to increase transaction speed and minimize costs, and finally generates verification to prove that the transactions are legitimate. This proof is then published to the Ethereum network. Scroll was established in 2021 and is headquartered in the Seychelles.

It achieved unicorn status in Q1 2023 after a Series B funding of $50 million in March 2023, which including Sequoia Capital and Qiming Venture Partners. In total, it has raised $83,000,000 at a value of $1.8 billion.

50% of African unicorns down

In the general list of African unicorns created by CV VC in 2021, only 50% of businesses have retained that status as a unicorn by the end of 2022. Three other firms, including Kucoin and Scroll, joined the list between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023 .The others are:

Opay – OPay is a Nigerian financial technology company that offers a range of smart financial services through its mobile app, allowing consumers to manage their money more efficiently.
Interswitch – Interswitch is a prominent African digital payments and commerce startup that helps consumers and businesses by simplifying transactions and improving the payment experience.
Wave – Wave Mobile Money is a Senegalese mobile banking service that provides consumers across Africa with easy-to-use, affordable money transfers, savings and loans.
MNT-Halan – MNT-Halan is an Egyptian fintech startup offering a range of financial services to underbanked companies and people, such as microloans, payments and digital banking solutions.