Binance-backed Bundle launches Africa-oriented crypto payments app
The right app in the right place at the right time could serve as a bellwether for potential crypto mass adoption.
Yele Bademosi, former director at Binance Labs, founded Bundle and successfully raised a pre-seed fundraise of $450,000 from Binance in September 2019.
It's a crypto payment app, with a number of interesting points of difference, some of which can be summarised as a tight focus on Africa and extensive integration with local currencies and payment channels.
It supports the Nigerian naira along with BTC, ETH and BNB, and outside the Bundle wallet itself it allows transactions to be processed with cards, bank transfers and, of course, Mobile Money.
In a way, it's designed to be the right app in the right place at the right time, which could make it an interesting bellwether of crypto adoption.
There's already a precedent there in the form of ridiculously fast uptake of mobile money apps in Sub-Saharan Africa, and a history of technological leapfrogging.
Right place, right time
"We believe Africa has several characteristics that make it a prime geographical location for the realisation of the full potential of digital currencies, blockchain, and its applications," said Bundle CTO Taiwo Orilogbon.
The app was specifically designed to leverage that to the fullest extent possible.
"We built Bundle with the digitally native African user in mind," said Yele Bademosi. "They are social, online, and connected across geographical boundaries. They prefer their financial services delivered digitally via mobile apps as opposed to visiting brick and mortar bank branches."
"We built Bundle as a mobile wallet that supports cash and crypto, and makes using crypto feel like just another digital financial transaction done on a mobile app like Venmo."
Bundle aims to support over 30 African countries by the end of the year. How much uptake it sees as it works towards that goal could provide some very useful insights for anyone who wants to see an indication of potential cryptocurrency adoption when you get the right app in the right place at the right time.
"Currently, only 1.4 million people out of 1.2 billion people in Africa use crypto today," said Orilogbon. "This is a worthwhile mission because making the blockchain ecosystem more accessible unlocks economic opportunity on and for the continent."
Disclosure: The author holds BTC, BNB, ATOM, IOTA at the time of writing.
Picture: Shutterstock
