The Valora mobile wallet, built for use on the Celo network, raised $20 million in a Series A round led by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
1/ Today I’m thrilled to share that a16z crypto is leading a $20 million Series A in @ValoraApp, a mobile-first crypto wallet, enabling borderless payments in seconds with near zero fees.https://t.co/9Y2Rwz5v8c
— Arianna Simpson (@AriannaSimpson) July 27, 2021
Other participants include Polychain Capital, SV Angel, Nima Capital, NFX and Valor Capital.
The payments-focused cryptocurrency app began as an internal project of Celo Labs, but with the funding it will operate as a standalone company. Its CEO will be Jackie Bona, who previously led the consumer growth team at the startup.
“We are excited to back the team as they continue to develop the product and bring crypto access to more people around the world,” wrote a16z partners Katie Haun and Arianna Simpson in a blog post.
Valora officially launched in February 2021, when the Celo platform closed a $20 million funding round. a16z participated in it.
According to the wallet team, the app counts more than 200,000 customers with balances and 53,000 monthly active users across more than 100 countries.
Earlier in April 2021, in Celo invested telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom.