African app Chipper Cash launches crypto tradin

After raising $30 million in a Series B funding, fintech startup company Chipper Cash launches cryptocurrency trading service due to the high demand for cryptocurrencies in Africa. The company is backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to broaden services in crypto trading with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

‘We’ve had demand from our users to offer other value services…like purchasing cryptocurrency assets and making investments in stocks,’ said Ugandan Ham Serunjogi, CEO of Chipper Cash.

The $30 million funds raised will be used to create more products and services by the company. Chipper Cash has a total of more than three million users producing approximately 80,000 transactions each day. Serunjogi mentioned that their monthly payments have reached $100 million in June.

Chipper Cash added crypto trading to the app to allow their users to purchase and sell Bitcoins and other digital assets using fiat currencies such as Nigerian Naira, South African Rand, and Ugandan Shillings. The app also allows crypto trading to verified accounts.

The option to purchase and sell Bitcoin as a beta test has already been added by Chipper Cash on its website and app. In collaboration with a financial services firm in the US called Drivewealth, Chipper Cash allows its users to invest in US stocks using the app.

Chipper Cash is a company founded in 2018 in San Francisco and its main purpose is to provide users in Africa with the opportunity to transfer money freely. It offers secured payment of bills, safe money transfer, and track payments. Users will go through an identity verification process in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa before they make a transaction.

The company also offers features like Chipper Checkout alongside its P2P app. The Checkout produces revenue to sustain the free mobile money business of Chipper Cash.

‘We’ll always be a P2P financial transfer platform at our core. But we’ve had demand from our users to offer other value services…like purchasing cryptocurrency assets and making investments in stocks,’ said Serunjogi.

‘We’ll launch in Nigeria first so Nigerians have the option to buy fractional stocks — Tesla shares, Apple shares or Amazon shares and others — through our app. We’ll expand into other countries thereafter,’ said Serunjogi regarding the added option to purchase and sell bitcoin in beta.

Serunjogi believes that being backed by widely known investors like Jeff Bezos will invite more investors to startups like them.