African web3 startup Nestcoin has laid off some employees as FTX’s demise impacted its business. This information was shared by the startup’s CEO, Yele Bademosi, who, in a tweet, said FTX’s fall from grace affected his one-year-old startup, which held assets (cash and stablecoins) in the now-defunct crypto exchange to manage operational expenses.
Nestcoin, which Bademosi described in an interview with TechCrunch as a venture collective, is one of a handful of African startups that have received venture capital from FTX and Alameda Research, alongside 200+ foreign-based startups and investment firms, including Circle and Sequoia Capital. FTX, for instance, led a $150 million Series C extension round in Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payments company.
Alameda Research, on the other hand, has backed Nigeria- and Kenya-based web3 company MARA;South African crypto exchange startup VALR;Congolese web3 startup Jambo;and Nigerian crypto exchange platform Bitnob.It’s still unclear if these other startups held their assets in FTX, but there’s a slight chance that might be the case, given what’s come to light with Nestcoin, even though Alameda Research, its investor, has less than 1% equity.
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