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Zimbabwean Bitcoin Exchange Becomes Savannah Fund’s First Bitcoin Investment

African venture capital firm, Savannah Fund, has invested in their first Bitcoin startup. BitFinance is a Zimbabwean exchange and designer of a yet-to-be launched crypto-currency atm.

African venture capital firm, Savannah Fund, has invested in their first Bitcoin startup. BitFinance is a Zimbabwean exchange and designer of a yet-to-be launched crypto-currency atm. The Bitcoin startup will receive $20,000 to $30,000 in funding and begin a 3 month accelerator program where they will receive support and training.

BitFinance joins three other startups – Djuaji, Forex Kenya, Podozi – in the Savannah Fund’s fourth batch of its accelerator program. The Fund, which focuses exclusively on early stage companies, has invested in over 20 startups, spanning 6 African countries. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Savannah Fund managing partner Mbwana Alliy said Bitcoin has the potential to solve problems unique to Zimbabwe.

“BitFinance interests us because it seeks to solve real issues people are facing. For instance, in Zimbabwe consumers have to deal with up to 13 legal tenders, which bring[s] the challenge of changing from one to another. We are also happy with the team behind the startup. They are local individuals grounded in the technology." – Mbwana Alliy, Managing Partner at Savannah Fund

Bitcoin in Africa

Alliy’s interest in Bitcoin goes back several years, and he first wrote about the subject for the Savannah Fund blog back in early 2013. He thinks the government agonistic currency has the  potential to unite Africa’s fragmented commercial and financial industries. “Now imagine the e-commerce or freelance service that needs [a] continent wide or global means to accept money- think collaborative consumption services like Airbnb or Odesk built in Africa start being used by early adopters, not paying your local utility bill,” wrote Alliy.

“To be frank, its just too hard for the likes of Amazon to set up a local sales/billing subsidiary to charge someone in Zimbabwe- bitcoin would enable that. In fact- services like Paypal should really be doing this, but because their model is beholden to working with local banks, they can’t move here.”
— – Alliy

Since 2013, Kenya’s BitPesa, Ghana’s Beam, South Africa’s iceCUBED and others have sprung up to bring Bitcoin to Africa but it is still unclear whether the currency will be able to make a major difference on the continent. But until now, no Bitcoin startup has operated in Zimbabwe, and BitFinance could position Bitcoin viable alternative to the country’s dire financial system and currency.


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