November was a month of celebration. CV Labs Africa had its first anniversary on the African continent after starting the incubation program in November 2021. With introducing the blockchain-focused accelerator together with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) based on a public-private partnership and the CV VC African Blockchain Early-Stage Fund we were able to lend our renowned expertise to enable Africa. By the end of the year, CV VC has invested in 12 startups where blockchain use cases go far beyond cryptocurrencies to drive Africa's future.

Africa is the world's second-largest continent in size and population, and African nations are amongst the fastest crypto adopters globally. As a blockchain investor and builder of international startup ecosystems, CV VC commits to investing in the broader applications of blockchain that are solving problems and creating new markets beyond crypto.

The last year in Africa has been jam-packed. Our African team has expanded from consisting of just Gideon Greaves, to now boasting five talented people. Here are some of the exciting things we've achieved over the last year (to name a few):

👉 Opened up our CV Labs hub in Cape Town, located at Workshop17. We still have some hot-desk spaces free, so come and join us.

👉 Coached 6 African startups through the CV Labs Accelerator - Mazzuma, CARMACHAIN, HouseAfrica, Pravica, Fastagger, and SodaWorld.

👉 Hosted nine webinars and eight physical events, including drinks with Celo Foundation, an ecosystem cooking workshop, and our recent meetup in Kenya.

👉 Set up Africa-specific partnerships with the major players VALR and Polygon Technology.

👉 Co-published the African Blockchain Report 2021, together with Standard Bank Group, which was featured in CoinDesk and Cointelegraph.

👉 Hosted a Swiss delegation, including the ex-president of Switzerland, facilitating discussions on collaboration between SA and Swiss academic institutions.

👉 Concluded a direct investment in South African blockchain powerhouse, Revix

New partners of CV Labs Africa

Since November, we have a new African platinum ecosystem partner, Polygon. Polygon is a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform that enables developers to build scalable, user-friendly Apps with low transaction fees without sacrificing security. Founded in 2017, Polygon has rapidly taken the place of a leader in the blockchain ecosystem, focusing on scalability issues.

CV Labs Africa has also partnered with Blockchain Research Institute (BRI) Africa, an African think-tank that brings together Africa's top industry leaders, academics, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and researchers. Together, we'll undertake Africa-specific research on blockchain technology and bridge the gap between the technological functionality of blockchain and the real market need.

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We're proud and lucky to work with exceptional individuals on the ground in Africa, and the expansion has surpassed our wildest expectations! We look forward to what the next year will bring.