Celo, the blockchain payments company, has spun off its digital wallet division into a separate company called Valora with a Series A funding round of $20 million.
This funding round was led by Andreesen Horowitz which has been actively pursuing investment opportunities in many fintech companies in the European region as it realizes that fintech is going to be the next frontier industry that is going to grow dramatically in the coming years.
Jackie Bona, CEO of Valora, said: “Valora is lowering the barrier to entry into crypto and DeFi. We believe in a world in which each individual has access to the wealth and opportunity created by this new global financial system, and Valora will strive to continue to provide greater access and build bridges to a better and more inclusive future.”
Celo had announced the launch of Valora earlier in the year intending to place digital wallets in the hands of every person. The company looks to wrap various blockchain and Defi services into a single mobile app which it hopes to place in the mobiles of every user so that they don’t get any different feeling while using the digital apps and they feel like they are using any other normal app.
The company says that the app works with any smartphone in the world and can be used to send payment to any other mobile phone anywhere in the world. No banks are involved in this process and the transaction fees are paid via stablecoins. This ensures that payment can reach any person even in the most remote parts of the world which is what the crypto ecosystem would be looking to achieve with its stablecoins and digital payments.
The company has said that the app currently has over 200,000 users with a balance and with more than 53,000 monthly active users and it hopes to use the new funds for growth and expansion both in terms of the product and its features as well as the number of users. It could follow the lines of the Circle app in that it plans to use crypto to remove banks and other middlemen when payments are made and we could probably see a new tie-up with some stablecoin blockchain company shortly to facilitate the payments and transactions. The company hopes to push this app in developing countries where banking penetration is low and hence the uptake for this app would be higher.
