Two African startups have been selected for the 4th cohort of LongHash Ventures Blockchain Accelerator Programme. The startups are Nigeria’s Xend and Egypt’s Pravica.
Xend and Pravica will join by 5 other blockchain startups from around the world in the accelerator programme that will culminate in a Demo Day sometime in August.
Now in its second year, the 12-week LongHash Ventures Blockchain Accelerator Programme will focus on open finance, LongHash said in a statement.
Open finance builds upon the idea of open banking, which is the use of open APIs that enable developers to build services around financial institutions.
Open finance goes beyond that, however, by allowing customers to share their data with third-party providers, who will then develop new products suited to fit their needs.
With this shift, LongHash said it has tapped industry experts from Ethereum Foundation, Maker, Synthetix, and InstaDApp. It will also be working with Fenbushi Capital, HashKey Capital, Kenetic Capital, and Dragonfly Capital on the investment front.
LongHash will then provide the selected startups with modules tailored for strategy formulation, go-to-market execution, and subject matter guidance.
“The growth of the blockchain ecosystem needs to be an undertaking that is both directed and purposeful. LongHash Ventures has demonstrated its unparalleled sourcing network and hands-on venture building capability in the past two years,” said Deng Chao, Managing Director at HashKey Capital.
Based in Singapore, LongHash is supported by Fenbushi Capital, HashKey Capital, and Enterprise Singapore. The company said it has raised over US$16 million in funding to date.
Meet the African startups
Pravica (Egypt)
An email and communications software which provides privacy and security blockchain also enable payments via email. Pravica recently raised half a million dollars led by 500 startups.
Xend (Nigeria)
An African end-to-end merchant solution including inventory management, payments and business intelligence.
