The news:
- Nestcoin has secured $1.9 million in strategic funding to strengthen its balance sheet and further the growth of its new product, Onboard.
- The funding round was led by Hashed Emergent, with participation from other investors.
- The startup, which raised $6.45 million in 2022, lost a significant part of it to the FTX crash in November 2022.
Surviving FTX
Nestcoin's $1.9 million in strategic funding comes after its $6.45 million pre-seed funding in February 2022. The funding, which was one of the largest pre-seed rounds on the continent, was unfortunately lost to the FTX crash of November 2022.
Yele Bademosi, Co-founder and CEO of Nestcoin said in a statement that the company held a significant portion of its investment as stablecoin in the now-defunct crypto exchange, FTX.
However, Nestcoin has since bounced back by focusing on one product — Onboard.
The focus on Onboard is a pivot from Nestcoin's initial mission, an incubator; a company with several crypto products that also invested in other crypto/Web3 companies.
Onboard is a non-custodial crypto wallet with the benefits of a custodial wallet. Nestcoin's new funding will be used to further the growth of the platform and strengthen its balance sheet.
The funding round was led by Hashed Emergent, with participation from other investors such as Adaverse, Base Ecosystem Fund, Alter Global, CMT Digital, Magic Fund, and 4DX Ventures.
This strategic investment is coming when crypto/Web3 startups are reeling from a severe crypto winter that has seen numerous crypto companies shut down. However, Nestcoin told Techpoint Africa it has been able to pull off this funding despite the Web3/crypto climate.
" We have a strong team with a successful history in Web3 and fintech. During the most difficult times, we showed we are resilient and relentlessly committed to our mission."
Its mission for Onboard is to provide universal access to world-class financial services. "We firmly believe that access to high-quality financial services should be universally available, regardless of one's geographical location," Bademosi said.
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Onboard is taking on non-custodial giants like MetaMask, Phantom, and Trust Wallet. Its competitive advantage is making it easy for wallet holders to keep their wallets safe.
While the likes of Trust Wallet require wallet holders to keep a 12-word seed phrase as the key to their wallets, Onboard is making it easy to access non-custodial wallets with a simple username and password.
It is also easing on-ramp and off-ramp on its non-custodial wallet, eliminating the need to move funds from non-custodial wallets to crypto-exchanges to convert from crypto to fiat or vice versa.
Crypto virtual cards
Essentially, Onboard wants to simplify the use of crypto for the uninitiated, and its next milestone fits into this mission.
The company said it plans to launch "Onboard Virtual Cards, a service that will allow Onboard users to spend their crypto as easily as cash, making both online and in-store payments possible across more than 160 countries."
Onboard currently has over 10,000 users, according to Nestcoin, but with the ongoing crypto winter, Onboard needs users to see crypto beyond speculation; a dilemma facing the entire crypto ecosystem.
