The move comes ahead of the upcoming launch of Mara Chain and a number of other initiatives in Mara’s digital finance ecosystem.

Mara first came to our attention at ACR in May of this year when news broke that it had raised a $23 million seed round. To date, this remains the largest known seed round in the African crypto space and the eighth largest funding round in our grant and venture funding database.

Last week, Mara announced the launch of the Mara Foundation. Until now, we had viewed Mara’s positioning in the African crypto landscape as that of an exchange – which it is. However, with the recent launch of a foundation and the announcement of a plan to train one million developers in Africa over the next five years, it’s apparent that there is a lot more in the works at Mara.

Layers on Layers

Mara was founded by Chi Nnadi and Kate Kallot. According to the TechCrunch article that announced Mara’s seed round in May, the company is building a “suite of products that address various crypto-finance needs for the African audience”, of which its “flagship product is a consumer crypto-brokerage app” that facilitates the buying, selling and transfer of crypto assets.

The article goes on to state that in Q4 2022, Mara “will launch the Mara Chain, a layer-1 blockchain” that will be powered by the MARA token, followed by a pro-exchange for advanced traders in Q1 2023.

The upcoming launch of a layer-1 platform by Mara will likely be big news. There are not many layer-1 blockchains that launch in Africa first, let alone those backed by Coinbase and Alameda Research.

The role of the Mara Foundation also comes into focus once we know that Mara Chain is on the way. As we’ve seen with other layer-1 platforms, the typical structure is for there to be a foundation that fosters the development of the layer-1’s ecosystem (e.g., Ethereum Foundation, Algorand Foundation, Celo Foundation).

According to the launch announcement, Mara Foundation will run various programs aimed at three core areas:

• Transforming sustainable financing, participation and methods.

• Increasing financial literacy and blockchain development capabilities.

• Boosting innovation by supporting individuals with an interest in technology to test, build and launch impactful solutions.

Broad Programming

Looking at the Mara Foundation’s website, we see that the organisation has a number of initiatives under development. These include a think tank, innovation labs and an educational academy.

The website also lists programs titled Sustainable Development Projects. These are described as pilots where the Mara Foundation will work with governments, non-profits and businesses to develop blockchain-based solutions.

Such solutions will include the tokenisation of assets like identity, natural resources, corporate and sovereign bonds, the goal being to usher in new ways of raising development capital. This is consistent with news we received earlier this year, when it was revealed that Mara is an advisor for the Central African Republic in connection with Project Sango.

Finally, last week, the creator of the USDC stablecoin – Circle Internet Financial – announced a partnership with the Mara Foundation. The partnership will see Circle and the foundation working together to grow awareness around USDC in Africa as well as training one million blockchain developers.

This month, Circle and the Mara Foundation are hitting the road in Kenya and Nigeria to engage with web3 developers. There are also plans in place for the two entities to kick-off a number of educational initiatives across Africa, including campus ambassador programs and developer masterclasses.

In closing, when one considers Mara’s funding, partnerships, government relations capabilities and upcoming layer-1 blockchain, it’s hard not to conclude that we are witnessing the emergence of a project that will be among the major players in Africa’s crypto ecosystem in the years to come.

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