John Momban
Alan Patricof, a famous venture capital grandfather has made a significant investment in the crypto-currency business, precisely bitcoin.
TechInAfrica – The founder and MD of Greycroft made his intention to invest the whopping sum of $2 million into BitPesa to strengthen the company. BitPesa is a company established to help businesses to speed up payments through the use of blockchain, with services currently offered to businesses within Asia and Africa. Patricof and his company Greycroft have invested in many Fintech startups. They haven’t considered any crypto-currency business until lately. As one of the finest and oldest venture capitalist in the country, Patricof’s investment and involvement with BitPesa, a Crypto-currency startup is very significant. From the interview Patricof had with Fortune, it was clear that his decision to invest in BitPesa is because of the confidence he has for Elizabeth Rossiello, founder of BitPesa. He believes the young CEO can lead the company to great heights.
Rossiello has the educational background and knowledge to excel in the digital currency line of business. She attended the School for International and Public Affairs at the famous Columbia University. While in school, she sneaks away to the business school to receive corporate finance lectures. After working with Goldman Sachs, Elizabeth worked on the African continent where she got the inspiration to create unique payment platforms. During this period in the African content, she noticed that people relied heavily on their SIM cards as well as national phone carries to carry out their banking transactions. She then decided to create a platform which includes bitcoin wallets where people can carry out transactions without paying high fees as usual.
BitPesa was launched in places like Uganda and Kenya, Nairobi. The company’s priority is to provide a reliable, cheap and efficient means for businesses to make payments.
Companies with higher global transactions are benefiting immensely from BitPesa.
An East African firm according to Rossiello, uses BitPesa to buy hundreds of cars from a major Japanese exporter. BitPesa also offers remittance services and its services are so unique that many companies may not know that they conduct and record all transactions through the bitcoin network. The company’s investment totals over $10 million. It raised $3 million from Plug and Play and Greycroft. And in January, it raised $2.5 in a series A funding and the rest from seeds and Angel investors.
