Celo Founder on Raising $10M and Redefining Money

CLabs has raised $10 million for its blockchain platform Celo in a dutch auction on CoinList on May 12.

The auction sold out within 12 hours, with Celo Gold (cGLD) tokens selling for roughly $1 each. Token holders will be able to participate on the Celo platform.

509 purchasers from 62 countries participated in the auction, with each buyer posting an average bid size of $22,076. 132 countries had registered for the auction, with the highest participation coming from Europe and Asia.

Celo raises $40m so far

The raise builds on the $30 million in funding Celo raised last year, including participation from Polychain Capital, a16z, and Andressen Horowitz, among others.

The auction also saw $504,338 in cGLD distributed as bonuses, including $4,150 in affiliate bonuses from 83 successful referrals.

The first stage of Celo’s mainnet launch went live on April 22. Auction participants are expected to receive their cGLD on May 18.

Celo enters early phases of mainnet

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Celo founder Rene Reinsberg stated that over 300 teams are currently building on Celo.

Reinsberg expressed her excitement for the next coming weeks, stating: “Once Celo Gold transfers are enabled, and Exchanges integrate with Celo, off-chain prices for Celo Gold will be able to be brought on-chain through a series of Oracles. This means the Reserve can be configured, and via on-chain governance, Celo Dollars can go live.” 

He noted that The Celo Wallet is its final step of Mainnet release, stating: “At this point, using the Celo Wallet, you’ll be able to send Celo Dollars to anyone in the world with just their mobile phone.”

Mass stablecoin adoption is coming

Discussing the use cases for the Celo platform, Reinsberg asserts that “people will begin to experiment with how money itself is created.”

Much like how money was backed by gold, new stablecoins can be backed by tokenized resources that we want to see more of in the world (e.g., tokenized rainforests). When picking between two stablecoins, you may soon be able to choose between, say, helping to solve global warming, or contributing to it.

“Out of the coming recession, we’ll see stablecoins gain broader adoption,” he added.