Paradigm Enters Africa With $30M Round for ‘Super App’ Jambo

Jambo, a Congo-based startup building a Web 3 user acquisition platform, has closed a $30 million Series A funding round led by Paradigm, marking the crypto native investing giant’s first investment in Africa.

• “We started Jambo last year with the mission to onboard the next million (and potentially billion) African people to Web 3,” wrote James Zhang Jambo CEO and co-founder (along with his sister Alice) in an announcement blog post. “As blockchain and fintech enthusiasts ourselves, we’re bullish on Web 3’s potential to bring prosperity to every corner of Africa, where we are seeing the youthful, educated and smartphone-savvy population already embracing crypto at a rapid clip.”
• Jambo’s “super app” concept combines education, collective access to play-to-earn games for lower barriers of entry and access to a curated network of Web 3 applications.
• Africa is a fast-growing region for crypto, with 1,200% growth in the market in the year ended June 2021 to $106 billion, according to the World Economic Forum. Last month, the Central African Republic adopted bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, the second country in the world to do so after El Salvador.
• “As Paradigm’s first investment in Africa, we couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Jambo team in this next phase of growth,” said Paradigm partner Casey Caruso. “We see massive Web 3 potential in Africa and it’s clear that James and Alice are uniquely positioned to build a durable on-ramp for the continent.”
• In November, Paradigm launched a record-breaking $2.5 billion crypto fund, topping the prior $2.2 billion record held by Andreessen Horowitz.
• Jambo raised $7.5 million in a seed round in February, with Coinbase (COIN) and Alameda Research among the backers.

Read more: Web 3 Needs Africa, Not the Other Way Around