EMURGO Africa’s Adaverse Invests in Momint to Expand Adoption of Cardano for NFTs in Africa
PRESS RELEASE — October 25, 2022
Adaverse, an EMURGO-backed Web3 accelerator focused on Cardano ecosystem adoption in Africa, recently announced its investment into Momint, a Web3 marketplace that makes investing in crypto and NFTs easy for users of all skill levels. Adaverse joined Momint’s highly competitive seed round alongside Outlier Ventures, Mountain Partners, Rob Hersov, and simple.Capital.
Adaverse was launched in September 2021 as a joint venture partnership between EMURGO Africa and Everest Ventures. Adaverse aims to identify and provide valuable support resources to promising African startups building socially impactful Web3 solutions on Cardano’s environmentally-friendly, decentralized blockchain.
Cardano is one of the largest open-source blockchain networks in the industry and utilizes a proof-of-stake consensus protocol to secure its network in an eco-friendly manner.
What is Momint?
Momint is an NFT content marketplace that provides a secure, ad-free experience to users while preserving individual privacy. It’s a seamless bridge for users journeying from Web2 to Web3, to learn about, discuss, and discover digital assets they would like to own.
More than just a way to mint and trade NFTs, Momint is a comprehensive social network for digital assets where users can follow their favourite creators and curate collections, learn about Web3, join community discussions, launch projects, and trade digital assets.
Founded by tech entrepreneurs Ahren Posthumous and Adam Romyn with the support of serial investor Rob Hersov, Momint began taking shape at the end of 2020. Ahren and Adam had previously found success reaching over 8 million users organically with an award-winning app that simplified government lockdown regulations in South Africa and now brings their experience to simplifying the complex world of Web3 and blockchain to reach the masses.
Why Momint?
NFTs and the metaverse are changing the world as we know it. In 2021, combined NFT sales reached $17.6 billion — a massive 21,350% increase over the previous year. NFTs have become so significant that Collins Dictionary named ‘NFT’ the 2021 ‘Word of the Year’.
However, Africans have been slow to enter NFT and metaverse markets. Despite having the highest rates of crypto adoption worldwide, Nigerians rank only sixth for search interest in NFTs. While there is growing interest among African consumers and investors in NFTs, the market has so far failed to accommodate African priorities.
The inherent complexities of trading and managing NFT collections across different blockchains, combined with high gas fees on primary chains like Ethereum, and an average NFT cost of $807.52 in 2021 have prevented Africans from diving head-first into NFT markets. With NFT markets expected to be worth $231 billion by 2030, there is an incredible opportunity for African consumers and investors to benefit from NFTs, should access become easier.
Momint has a significant role to play by onboarding the next one million users to Web3. With a mobile-optimized NFT marketplace that’s simple enough for users with no crypto experience to use and platform fees that are affordable for all, Momint is built to meet the needs of users in emerging economies like Africa. To improve the adoption rate, the team has already secured major partnerships with several grassroots community-focused startups that will introduce hundreds of thousands of users to the platform in the short term including Scoin, a project enabling community ownership of a rare part of South Africa’s history, and the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, whose mission is to put an end to drownings globally through swimming and water safety education.
With Adaverse’s support, Momint is expanding its marketplace to support users on Cardano. Momint is committed to environmental sustainability and tech interoperability, making Cardano an ideal chain to support. Built to provide accessible economic services to all through decentralized applications on its open-source platform, and with a carbon footprint of less than 0.01% of Bitcoin’s, Cardano is the perfect blockchain ecosystem for Momint’s creators and users looking for long-term solutions. With a huge and growing global community that recently marked its fifth anniversary, Cardano has an expansive reach of users for Momint’s potential user base.
Shogo Ishida, co-CEO for the Middle East & Africa at EMURGO Africa, stated: “The next generation of Web3 users won’t be crypto-native — they’ll be Web2 users that find simplified ways to begin using blockchain services. Momint is positioned to enable this transition by giving Africans access to easy and affordable ways to begin exploring NFT markets.”
Ahren Posthumus, CEO and Co-Founder of Momint, said: “We felt that it made so much sense for Momint to partner with Adaverse. We share common goals in enhancing Web3 experiences in valuable ecosystems, specifically, developing markets like Africa and Asia. We are currently integrating Cardano support for NFTs on our marketplace, which as it stands is the #1 Web3 marketplace in Africa. The Adaverse team’s knowledge of the Cardano blockchain will prove invaluable as we continue our development. Cardano’s well-established base in these regions and its fast, near-zero fees make it an ideal blockchain for Momint to support on the marketplace.”
Vincent Li, a founding partner at Adaverse, added: “The Cardano ecosystem in Africa is one of the most exciting areas in all blockchain, and we’re eager to support the Momint team expand into it. We’re confident that Momint can help onboard millions of users from Africa and around the world, and in doing so create new financial opportunities for people in emerging economies.”
About Adaverse
Adaverse is a Cardano ecosystem accelerator launched by EMURGO Africa and Everest Ventures Group to help the next generation of African Web3 startups excel on the global front. Established as an alchemist for organically grown solutions, we assist startups to grow sustainable businesses on the continent, through funding and a 1:1 mentorship program. Our accelerator program is open to applications all year round from African-based startups with a crypto-native edge and a proven concept.
To apply for the Adaverse accelerator program, click here.
To learn more about Momint, visit their website.
