SOUTH AFRICA – The South African venture capital firm known as Paper Plane Ventures, which is one of the main backers of Centbee; the wallet provider of BitcoinSV (BSV), has sold its stake in Centbee to Dutch VC firm, Two Hop Ventures.

The announcement which was made through a joint press release revealed that Paper Plane Ventures had successfully divested its stake in Centbee and exited to Amsterdam-based Two Hop Ventures.

Two Hop Ventures is a venture capital fund based in the Netherlands. It invests exclusively in companies leveraging the BitcoinSV (BSV) blockchain. Two Hop’s investment targets are enabling technologies such as Identity as a Service (IDaaS), Indexing, Remittance, and Document Management.

Delighted by the development, Jan Smit, the co-founder of Two Hop Ventures, declared that buying out Paper Plane Ventures and taking up a strong position in Centbee was always a no-brainer.

“Not only is Centbee one of the most used wallets in the BitcoinSV (BSV) ecosystem, it is building products and services with a strong focus on regulatory compliance,” remarks Smit.

“The senior management team come from strong professional and corporate backgrounds including software engineering, banking, payments, accounting, and finance.

“We believe its professionalism and strong business acumen will enable Centbee to branch into many adjacent services and geographies which competitors are less likely to address. The Two Hop team is looking forward to supporting the Centbee team on this journey.”

Centbee is a BitcoinSV (BSV) wallet provider that makes it easy for global consumers to buy, keep and send BitcoinSV to their friends using their mobile phone.

Centbee is growing globally from its base in South Africa. In 2019, the wallet provider was made headlines when it raised GBP 1 Mn in a Series A round led by Canadian-born billionaire entrepreneur, Calvin Ayre.

Commenting on the exit, Michael Stannard of Paper Plane Ventures said, “We’re proud to have supported Centbee from its early days as a small start-up to becoming a formidable player in the crypto-asset space. We look forward to watching the fintech grow.”

“This deal demonstrates the potential for Centbee and other BitcoinSV (BSV) companies to deliver real value for both investors, industry stakeholders and consumers,” Angus Brown, co-CEO of Centbee added.

“We’ve enjoyed a high user growth rate and have a clear path to revenue. With Two Hop’s support, we’ll continue building more utility into our products by leveraging the BitcoinSV(BSV) blockchain and delivering world-class app functionality to our users”