MoneyBadger, a South African crypto payments startup founded by Luno co-founder Carel van Wyk, has raised a $400,000 (R7 million) pre-seed round to scale adoption of its Bitcoin payment infrastructure.
The raise, led by P1 Ventures and backed by crypto-native angel investors—with a portion of the investment made in Bitcoin—marks the company’s first external funding round since emerging from stealth. Co-founded with Carl Kritzinger, MoneyBadger is now integrated into over 1,600 retail outlets, including supermarkets, fashion stores, and convenience chains.
The company was launched in 2022 after Pick n Pay, one of South Africa’s largest grocery chains, sought a way to embed Bitcoin payments at checkout. Pick n Pay debuted crypto payments in February 2023.
“Thanks to advances in Bitcoin payments technology, especially the Lightning Network, we delivered a working prototype that was faster and cheaper than tap-to-pay with credit cards,” Van Wyk said.
MoneyBadger’s platform allows customers to pay for everyday items using Bitcoin via QR codes or integrated POS terminals. The startup claims to be processing over R1.4 million ($83,000) in monthly crypto transactions, with Pick n Pay alone contributing more than R1 million ($59,000), according to the retailer’s head of financial services, Deven Moodley.
“Crypto payments fit into our Ways2Pay strategy of giving more customers mechanisms to pay in our stores,” said Moodley, highlighting Pick n Pay’s plan to provide diverse payment options to shoppers.
MoneyBadger integrates with Binance, Luno, VALR, and AltCoinTrader wallets, while Luno, VALR, Blink, and Aqua have adopted its proprietary QR scanning technology.
MoneyBadger plans to use the new capital to expand its merchant footprint through partnerships with Tier 1 payment providers, ecommerce platforms, and national QR code networks. The move reflects growing demand for retail crypto utilities in South Africa, where customers are increasingly using digital assets to pay for groceries, bills, and travel.
Its rival, Luno Pay—a payments spinoff from crypto exchange Luno—reported over R20 million ($1.1 million) in Bitcoin purchases across its network since its November 2024 launch, with current monthly volumes near R2 million ($112,000).
“Bitcoin has grown about 3x in the last couple of years. We don’t see that growth slowing,” said Van Wyk. “That makes Bitcoin adoption attractive for retailers.”
P1 Ventures’ Managing Partner, Hisham Halbouny, described the investment as a bet on crypto’s practical use case in frontier markets. “While the West debates regulation, Africa is where the future of crypto utility is being written,” he said.
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