Washington, D.C, District of Columbia Mar 1, 2022 (Issuewire.com) - Fonbnk Inc., a Web3 company bringing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) to the masses across emerging markets, has successfully closed an oversubscribed, $3.5 million seed round.
As a mission-led crypto Web3 company, Fonbnk enables unbanked and underbanked users in mobile-first markets to onramp to digital money using prepaid airtime.
This $3.5 million seed round was anchored by New Form Capital, with participation from leading crypto investors such as Kraken Ventures, North Island Ventures, affiliates of MEXC Global, Principle Ventures, Formless Capital, Republic Capital, and Audacity Fund.
The fundraising also drew noteworthy participation from Pharell Williams via Black Ambition, alongside leading seed and angel investors Hustle Fund, Industrious Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, Allied Venture Partners, Seed9, Draper Frontier Ventures, Techstars Western Union, EchoVC Partners, GP Ventures, and Pax Angeles.
“Pre-paid airtime minutes are currency (for transfers, exchange of goods and services) across most of the under and unbanked populations globally. Fonbnk’s solution is a perfect use case - and directly in line with Kraken Ventures’ focus - to bridge decentralized Finance with mass FinTech. The team’s mission-driven and thoughtful approach to launching this effort is particularly commendable and Kraken Ventures is looking forward to working with Fonbnk.” Said Akshi Federici, Operating Partner Kraken Ventures.
Fonbnk’s $3.5 million seed round is a strong indicator of investor confidence in its mission to provide access to decentralized financial services for the world's unbanked and underbanked population. The capital infusion will strengthen Fonbnk’s positioning as a leading alternative onramp to Web3 for the emerging markets.
What is Fonbnk?
Fonbnk is a decentralized finance company on a mission to onramp the unbanked and underbanked peoples of emerging markets across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia into the digital economy.
Fonbnk is unlocking the potential of the world's "unbanked" by offering access to financial services through DeFi. This platform enables interoperability between a Web3 internet and a traditional fiat-based monetary system.
With this unique solution, Fonbnk is pulling on the widespread penetration of billions of prepaid mobile sim cards and mobile phones that now provide a service that allows users to convert prepaid credits into digital money and spend anywhere globally.
Through Fonbnk’s mobile application, users access digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and other crypto-based economies such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and play-to-earn (P2E) crypto games as well as traditional financial services such as Visa and Mastercard prepaid virtual cards.
In this way, Fonbnk uses cryptocurrency as a pathway to decentralized finance and a bridge to traditional financial services.
Fonbnk is unique among its peer companies for integrating the needs of mainstream users unfamiliar with crypto while using the most familiar digital onramp solution globally (prepaid airtime credits).
Fonbnk’s model combining DeFi and prepaid airtime allows its platform to scale substantially without compromising its core mission of financial inclusion for the broadest group of people, unlocking the potential for billions globally.
Future of the Digital Economy
Fonbnk will lead the charge in revolutionizing alternative payment rails for mobile-first economies moving from high cash-based transactions to digital currencies in a Web3 internet.
Evidence reveals emerging economies leapfrogged from no telecommunication services to full-blown mobile penetration. Therefore, it is not far-fetched to imagine these countries once again leapfrog traditional banking systems and straight into using decentralized financial services.
Decentralization is key to reaching people that traditional, centralized financial institutions do not fully service. In addition, Fonbnk’s model offers users freedom over their assets which is the number one advantage of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.
Fonbnk's value proposition will open a new sector of users to decentralized financial services, creating new markets and opportunities for both telecommunication service providers and their users. Already, the Fonbnk app is live across all significant Sub-Saharan African countries.
For further information please visit https://www.fonbnk.com
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