Scalex—a pan-African, first-of-its-kind hybrid Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Ramp platform, has closed an undisclosed SAFE investment with Cardano’s major investors EMURGO. Scalex disclosed this news during a conversation with TechCabal to announce its pre-seed raise series.
The Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Ramp platform, Scalex, was founded by Nnaemeka Nwosu (CEO & Product Lead), James Ademuyiwa (Head of Blockchain), Ngati Jalani (Strategy Lead), Joel Ajide (CTO), and Adeniyi Adedamola (Lead Design) in February 2021 to tackle the notorious fraud-ridden P2P market in Africa.
Africans can access the Crypto and Web3 ecosystem through Scalex’s automated P2P and Ramp platform, ensuring zero fraud.
After the CBN circular banning crypto banking in Nigeria followed by the consequent high influx of Nigerians into the space, Peer-to-Peer platforms became the go-to infrastructure for many upon which Scalex emerged to create solutions to enhance seamless, fraudless, and hassle-free peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency transactions.
Speaking with Joel Ajide, Scalex CTO, he mentioned that “like every other development, bad players were not slack in riding on the ignorance of newbies and those migrating from centralised platforms to the P2P market to satisfy their crypto trade needs.”
“Even two-thirds of Scalex founders,” he continued, “had been victims of fraudulent P2P platforms; therefore, this led to the proprietary technology powering Scalex and its solutions. The solution Scalex provides as an automated P2P, and ramp platform answers the questions that my other teammates and I have about the possibility of eliminating bad players.”
“We didn’t just step out to build a solution to our sad individual experiences; we also, along the way, found out that we were building layer 0 of the crypto economy in Africa. Scalex’s Head of Blockchain, James, said in a statement. “We figured we have been saddled with the responsibilities of eliminating the fraud-plaited barrier positioned to gatekeep the crypto-economy by Africans,”
Emurgo’s investment in Scalex was necessitated by the alignment of Scalex’s mission with Cardano’s lead investor’s visionary plans for the African continent. “EMURGO Africa is excited to support Scalex’s vision to provide more secure and seamless next-generation financial access across Africa, which aligns with our goal to build socially impactful solutions in Africa.” Shogo Ishida, co-CEO for the Middle East & Africa at EMURGO.
“Scalex is exerting its efforts to empower and provide more inclusive opportunities for everyone. EMURGO Africa is very excited to work with Scalex to tackle regional challenges and leverage scalable, sustainable, and interoperable solutions in Africa,” Shogo added.
Speaking on the arrays of solutions offered by Scalex, “we have a bucket of solutions aimed at facilitating the seamless integration of users into the crypto ecosystem to promote financial inclusion and Web3 adoption in the continent. Scalex P2P, our primary feature, is a hybrid automated peer-to-peer platform enabling users to easily buy and sell cryptocurrencies, eliminating the scam barricade popular in the industry,” James added.
Scalex’s most-sort-after solution is the “Bridge,” an On/Off Ramp infrastructure that enables users to get fiat to crypto; and crypto back to fiat from any crypto platform globally. Scalex is also working on expanding this Ramp to Web3, as the “W3Ramp” enables users to bridge from fiat into DeFi/Web3 protocols on Polygon, Solana, Ethereum, and recently, Cardano, owing to the recent investment by Emurgo.
Scalex has also catered for developers, having built an array of Tools, API, and SDK solutions that enable exchanges, merchants, and crypto platforms to easily process On/Off Ramp transactions across Africa.
“At Scalex, we are furthering the narrative, redefining how Africans journey through the crypto space. From designs that simplify the prevalent complexities in the space to an infrastructure built on the foundation of security and data protection, we have ensured new users have the best, guarded experience. These factors, combined with the most affordable fees, have contributed to our consistent month-on-month growth since going public in October 2021 with just over 500 users to well over 10k users and growing all the while being bootstrapped,” said Emeka Nwosu, CEO and Product Lead.
“The focus is way beyond the retail scope. By building upon our robust tech stack, we intend to open up the continent to more global crypto platforms and chains through various integrations and APIs while keeping an eye on possible NFT launchpads and untapped DeFi spaces,” Emeka added.
James told TechCabal that users should expect the release of the Scalex’s Mobile App in a few months. Scalex started in Nigeria with a Web App accessible at www.scalex.africa, with Africa-wide expansion in view.
