Canza Finance, a Nigerian cryptocurrency startup, announced that it completed a $3.27 million seed round financing to offer crypto financial services across the country.
Canza, founded by former AT&T employees Pascal Ntsama and Oyedeji Oluwole, aims to become a crypto neobank that connects African businesses to the global economy. Currently, the company offers cross-border settlement and treasury management.
Fenbushi Capital, a blockchain-focused venture firm, led the round with Dominance Ventures, Hashkey Capital, Boxing Ventures, Consensys, Protocol Labs and others participating, Forbes reported.
According to Ntsama, the company’s CEO, cross-border settlement is currently the company’s most advanced offering, with roughly $1 million in volume sent weekly to Canada, China, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United States. Later this year, a treasury management service will be launched.
Canza addresses some of the biggest challenges Nigerian enterprises faced by focusing on cross-border settlement and treasury management. To assist Nigerian businesses and FX agents in settling international transactions, Canza has established itself as a crypto-based hawaladar, which partners with companies in different countries as an on-ramp/off-ramp.
An FX agent or businessperson takes the Naira equivalent of the
payment they wish to make to Canza. Using a stablecoin like USDT, Canza then transfers the dollar equivalent to its off-ramp/on-ramp partner in the destination country, who then delivers the payment in fiat to the seller.
“We’re investing heavily on legal, bringing on a compliance manager, working with a combination of legal firms in different territories and going after specific licenses, such as a PSSP license in Nigeria and a money transmitter license in the US,” Ntsama commented.
Recently, Nestcoin, Nigeria’s investment firm, announced it had raised $6.45 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Venture capital firms Distributed Global and Alter Global. Serena Ventures, MSA Capital, A&T Capital, 4DX Ventures, Alameda Research and a few others also participated in the funding round.