Celo, the open-source blockchain payments outfit taking on the Facebook-led Diem, has received $20 million in backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Greenfield One, and Electric Capital.
Celo is building an ecosystem focused on financial services DeFi systems and tools accessible to anyone with a smartphone.
Over the last few years, the Celo community has developed a mainnet, native asset, a stablecoin, and a mobile payments app. So far, more than two million transactions have run across the Celo network.
With the new funding in place, Celo is looking to add more tools, beginning with a mobile remittance and peer-to-peer payments app called Valora.
The app lets users send and receive funds from virtually anywhere around the world within seconds and for a cost that it typically as little as $0.01 per transaction. In beta since September, the app already has tens of thousands of users across more than 100 countries.
Celo has also partnered the Grameen Foundation to use Valora to distribute aid to more than 3500 women entrepreneurs impacted by Covid-19 across the Philippines.
Sebastian Blum, managing partner, Greenfield One, says: "Valora is the perfect example of crypto innovation and how to develop on the Celo platform to put crypto in the hands of millions of users."
Read Finextra's long read on Celo