Crypto app Valora raises $20M, becomes independent from Celo

Celo-powered crypto wallet Valora has closed on a $20 million funding round, as the company announced it will become a standalone entity.

In a Tuesday announcement, Valora said Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, SV Angel, Nima Capital, NFX, Valor Capital, and others had invested $20 million in a Series A round for the crypto app, which will now operate as an independent company. Jackie Bona, the former head of consumer growth of Celo’s cLabs cLabs, will become Valora’s new chief executive officer.

“I am delighted to be leading Valora at such a dynamic time in this important evolution, both as an independent company and in the cryptocurrency world at large,” said Bona. “Consumer awareness of crypto has never been higher, and yet many people remain on the sidelines, either due to skepticism or lack of access.”

Valora said it will use the funds for product development and create educational content “to get more people comfortable using cryptocurrencies.” The platform reported it has more than 53,000 monthly active users able to send funds around the world.

Related: Opera announces support for Celo stablecoins in its crypto wallet app

First launched in February, Valora allows users to send payments with its Celo Dollar stablecoins (cUSD), backed by other cryptocurrencies in the Celo ecosystem. The price of the blockchain’s native token CELO is $2.55 at the time of publication.