Blockchain technology has the ability to facilitate the development of solutions for most of the problems faced in Africa, and by people in other third world countries as well.
Numerous companies and startups have leveraged blockchain to develop their own products. However, according to Forbes, Africa’s Blockchain potential is largely untapped.
Æternity Hub Africa is one of the companies daring to break in this new frontier. Based in Nairobi-Kenya, the company develops decentralized applications on æternity blockchain.
Innovation Village spoke to Aeternity Hub Africa Chief Operating Officer, Frank Deya, who told us more about the company’s activities and its journey so far.
- Tell us about your company? What problem are you solving? How are you leveraging blockchain technology to solve this problem?
Æternity Hub Africa is driving the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in Africa. We are building Decentralized applications on the æternity blockchain.
Each of the solutions we are working on are tackling specific problems. For example; businesses in Africa have a challenge in raising capital for startup and expansion we have built FundRaise which enables crowdfunding on the blockchain through token sales.
Merchants today can accept cryptocurrencies for payments from customers through BitPal which converts the crypto to fiat currency at no cost.
We also build custom applications for clients across various sectors; and these utilize various elements of blockchain to increase efficiency, bring down costs, cut out middlemen, improve transparency and security.
- What’s Aeternity’s story, from the start to where you are now?
We came together mid last year and to date we have held various blockchain workshops and industry specific meet up events to create awareness about the tech, created working partnerships with corporations and academia, have been building deapps and are presently expanding our community and reach to other countries in Africa.
- Why is now the best time for your company to exist?
For a while, conversations in this space were mostly limited to Bitcoin; which is blockchains’ first use case. It was a hype phase that was inspired by price rallies and profiteering from trading. However, gradually participants are seeing the potential for blockchain itself in transforming areas of business, governance and academia. More use cases are being explored and blockchain developers are taking up projects. We are moving beyond the hype.
- Tell us about your team, and their roles in the company
We have a small team that consists of software engineers, business development, marketing & branding, operations, research & development.
- What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?
We have put together a creative and cohesive team. Every achievement is as a result of the effort every member brings on board.
- At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics?
For perspective, I would give an example of a blockchain hackathon that we conducted at the beginning of this year. We managed to bring together participants from 5 African countries to participate virtually in the process. From this activity, we managed to expose entrepreneurs, designers and developers to the use cases that they can develop, conduct a feasibility for the projects and connecting them to upskilling platforms to enable them build capacity. While development of the projects that were initiated may take a while, it generated interest and encouraged participants to look further down the rabbit hole.
Therefore, considering the nascent nature of this space, exposure and awareness is the key metric that will be a fundamental driver in this sector.
- Tell us about your funding history. Are you self, angel or VC funded?
We are supported by æternity blockchain through it’s ventures wing.
- How is your traction so far? How many users do you have? And What’s most exciting about your traction to date?
So far we have built active community engagements with several universities in Kenya through our educational workshops, we are onboarding 15 start ups on FundRaise – the crowdfunding platform, soon we’ll have hundreds of users making payments in cryptocurrency using our BitPal payments platform – & this is a projection from the ongoing merchant adoption process who include a ride hailing company available in 5 countries, an events ticketing service, an e-commerce platform, a real estate company among others.
Related article: Bitpesa founder to co-chair global blockchain council
- Where do you think your growth will be next year?
We have been working on setting up an ambassador network to drive our business and partnerships in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda & South Africa.
We want to be the home of Blockchain software engineers in Africa, to offer solutions in this space that tackle unique problems and shape the future of commerce and industry in the African continent.
- Any advice to upcoming startups in the blockchain space?
Blockchain needs more participants – entrepreneurs, developers, educators, marketors; these are new opportunities that didn’t exist in the recent past. Take up the challenge & start somewhere; we’ve barely scratched the surface.
For context, it is predicted that over $500 trillion worth of assets will be tokenized. Everyone can participate in this future.
