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§ Private Profile · 7 Ibiyinka Olorunbe Victoria Island, Lagos, Lagos, 106104, Nigeria
Decentralized finance platform providing Web3 financial products, remittances, and cross-border payments for emerging markets.
Canza Finance is a decentralized finance company operating globally that develops Web3 infrastructure to provide cross-border payments, remittances, and peer-to-peer financial services for underserved populations and small businesses in emerging markets. The platform integrates digital crypto-assets with traditional financial systems, utilizing local money market players to distribute transaction services and facilitate necessary crypto on-ramps and off-ramps for its users. The organization focuses primarily on African markets, including Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, and Kenya, while expanding its product offerings to include a real-world asset marketplace and its proprietary Baki exchange. To scale its decentralized financial network, the enterprise has raised $3.27 million in seed funding from a syndicate of prominent venture capital firms, including Fenbushi Capital, ConsenSys Mesh, Protocol Labs, and HashKey. Canza Finance was officially founded in 2020 by Pascal Ntsama and Oyedeji Oluwoye.
Canza Finance has raised $5.3M across 2 funding rounds.
Canza Finance has raised $5.3M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Canza Finance has raised $5.3M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $2.3M Other Equity in January 2024.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 16, 2024 | $2.3M Venture Round | Polychain Capital | 99 Capital, Blizzard Fund, Hyperithm, Protocol Labs, Stratified Capital | Announced |
| Feb 1, 2022 | $3M Seed | BO Shen | Allegory, Flori Ventures, Marek Olszewski, Boxing Ventures, ConsenSys, Dominance Ventures, HashKey Capital, Colin Evran | Announced |
Canza Finance has raised $5.3M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Canza Finance's investors include Polychain Capital, 99 Capital, Blizzard Fund, Hyperithm, Protocol Labs, Stratified Capital, Bo Shen, Allegory, Flori Ventures, Marek Olszewski, Boxing Ventures, ConsenSys.
Canza Finance is a Web3 neobank and DeFi platform building the world's largest non-institutional-based financial system, fusing blockchain technology, crypto assets, and local infrastructures to deliver financial services for SMEs and individuals in emerging markets, particularly Africa.[2][3][5][6] It offers products like Baki exchange for slippage-free cross-border FX trades at central bank rates, cryptocurrency onramps/offramps, treasury services, agent-based banking, and an upcoming RWA Marketplace for tokenized real-world assets such as zEUR, zGold, and zBTC.[3][4][6] Serving underbanked businesses and users facing forex liquidity challenges, Canza solves high-cost, slow cross-border payments and limited access to global assets, with strong growth via $5.57M in funding from top VCs like Polychain and Fenbushi Capital.[2]
Founded in 2019 or 2020 in Lagos, Nigeria, Canza emerged from co-founders Pascal Ntsama and Oyedeji Oluwoye's recognition of Africa's forex and cross-border payment gaps.[1][2][5][6] Oluwoye, emphasizing a hands-on African focus, aimed to leverage DeFi and local money market networks for inclusive finance, evolving from early traction in crypto onramps to a full Web3 neobank.[6] Pivotal moments include seed funding of $3.27M in March 2022 from investors like Fenbushi Capital and Celo, followed by a $2.3M strategic round in January 2024 backed by Polychain, Protocol Labs, and Avalanche Foundation, fueling product expansion like Baki.exchange.[2]
Canza rides the DeFi and RWA tokenization wave in emerging markets, where Africa's $100B+ remittance flows and SME financing gaps create massive demand for efficient, low-cost alternatives to legacy banking.[6][7] Timing aligns with blockchain adoption surging in Sub-Saharan Africa—driven by mobile penetration and regulatory shifts toward crypto—positioning Canza to capture forex liquidity shortages amid naira volatility and intra-African trade growth under AfCFTA.[3][6] It influences the ecosystem by pioneering non-institutional finance, empowering unbanked users via mobile-accessible tools and fostering Web3 innovation for economic integration.[2][3]
Canza is poised to become Africa's Web3 investment bank, targeting $1B TVL and $25M AUM by Q4 2025 through RWA Marketplace launches, zAsset listings on Tier-2 exchanges, and 100% partnership attainment with asset providers.[3] Rising DeFi maturity, RWA hype, and Avalanche integrations will accelerate growth, though regulatory hurdles in Nigeria could test resilience. As cross-border trends intensify, Canza's fusion of local insights and global tech cements its lead in non-institutional finance, unlocking wealth creation from Lagos to the world.[3][6]