Nigerian fintech Fedi raises $17 million in Series A to launch a federated Bitcoin wallet app

Fedi, a financial and data technology company co-founded by Nigerian Bitcoin advocate Obi Nwosu, has secured $17 million in a Series A funding round. The firm is now preparing to launch an alpha version of Fedi for builders later this month.

Fedi, interoperable with the Bitcoin Lightning Network, is described as a technology company that builds global Bitcoin adoption technology. Its mobile app is designed to help billions of people use Bitcoin securely, privately, and scalably.

It aims to be the world’s first federated operating system empowering individuals to collaborate through "federations made up of friends, families, neighbours, non-profit organisations, social clubs, businesses, conferences and other forms of community to take control of their money, their data, and their digital lives while still protecting user privacy and autonomy."

Fedi is built on the Fedimint protocol, an open-source protocol for 'custodying' and transacting Bitcoin in a community context, which makes it easy for developers to build additional apps and modules to complement Fedi’s offerings and give more options to users.

Fedi is different from other Bitcoin wallets in two key ways: Federated Custody – Instead of entrusting your funds to an unknown third party, you can store your funds with community leaders you know and trust, and Privacy – Through the use of eCash technology, Fedi provides an added layer of privacy.

The financing round, which brings the total amount raised by Fedi to $21.21 million, was led by Ego Death Capital, with participation from TBD, part of Block, Kingsway, Trammell Venture Partners, and TimeChain.