VALR Turns 5!
On March 20, 2018, VALR was registered as a company in South Africa.
The founders knew that the journey would not be easy; after all, several other South African crypto exchanges had failed. But in the five years since then, VALR has grown consistently in the midst of a world buffeted by the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical uncertainty, and wild swings in traditional financial as well as crypto markets.
How did VALR go from five people crowded into a tiny room in Rivonia, to a crypto exchange hosting the largest trading volume of Bitcoin in Africa – 50% more than its nearest competitor?
World class products
The story begins with a clear sense of purpose: the ambition of the founders was to make financial services fairer and more accessible to more people. Together with the promise of a world class product and very competitive fees, the founders aimed to create a crypto exchange comparable with the best in the world. It was a vision that resonated with investors.
In July 2018, VALR received its first seed funding of $1,5 million. In July 2020, VALR’s series A funding round raised $3,4 million, while in March 2022, their series B raised $50 million.
In December 2018, VALR signed up its first customers, and in June 2019, the exchange launched its first ZAR trading pairs. VALR has consistently added trading pairs and coins since then, and now offers traders more than 60 digital assets on its platform. Products offered by VALR include Simple Buys, Auto Buy and VALR Pay, which makes sending and receiving payments in either crypto or fiat free and instant.
More recent innovations include Margin Trading (currently in testing with corporate clients) and Shared Accounts, which makes account management by trusted partners easy and secure. Other exciting products are in the pipeline, and will be announced over the coming months.
Today, VALR boasts more than 800 corporate and institutional clients, many of whom make use of VALR’s powerful API to offer crypto to their own customers.
“Build on VALR” has been an important focus for the past six months, with VALR’s leading liquidity proving very attractive to the power users who are the most active traders. VALR has a significant advantage over its competitors in the quality of the service it provides.
VALR Support is staffed by a team of people from diverse backgrounds who have one thing in common: they’re passionate about crypto, and they’re passionate about being helpful. As a result, VALR Support is known for going the extra mile to solve customer queries and its largest customers get dedicated technical support as well.
Prudent leadership
The travails of financial institutions in both the tradfi and crypto space are top of mind right now. The rescue of Credit Suisse in the wake of the downfall of SVB and other US banks, as well as the spectacular implosion of FTX all serve as trenchant reminders of the need for ethical, prudent leadership.
The safety of funds on VALR has always been a top priority, both from the point of view of security as well as compliance. VALR’s leadership spends a lot of time with the regulators to make sure that the exchange is compliant with the laws of the countries where it operates.
There are encouraging signs that crypto is becoming a more widely accepted part of the financial system in South Africa and elsewhere, which makes VALR’s coordinated approach with authorities even more essential in order to create trust. Trust is vital in financial services, especially during times of uncertainty in global markets.
What’s next?
What do the next five years hold for VALR? Having launched in South Africa, the plan is to take VALR’s world class products, competitive fees and attentive service global.
VALR’s liquidity and flexible API offer an attractive way for other brands to get into the crypto space with a white label offering, and the expectation is that this will be a significant source of growth for the largest exchange headquartered in Africa.
“This is an exciting time for crypto, but also a daunting one,” says VALR CEO Farzam Ehsani. “We’re going to see big changes in the world as the frailties of the traditional system are revealed.”
It’s hard to predict exactly what will happen, but whatever the next five years bring, the VALR team will have their heads down, continuing to build the financial system of the future.
