Africa's blockchain economy is booming — and Abu Dhabi wants a front row seat. Today in our ADX studio I have Brenton Naicker, Principal and Head of Growth at CV VC, a blockchain and AI focused venture capital firm and accelerator operating across the African continent and beyond. Welcome to the show, Brenton.
Thank you so much for having me. Really excited to talk about the African opportunity and the collaboration possibilities between the regions.
Can we start with what CV VC is and how you're working with the Abu Dhabi ecosystem?
At its core, CV VC is a blockchain and AI focused venture capital firm investing at pre-seed through Series A. But we believe the future of venture capital is more than just writing cheques — you need to add value to the ecosystem and to the founders you support. We do this through a separate arm called CV Labs, which creates one of the leading platforms for our founders — through leading coworking spaces, industry research reports like the one we'll discuss today, and corporate innovation programmes. We work with Hub71 here in Abu Dhabi, where we're helping power their digital assets and blockchain programme, while building bridges between Abu Dhabi and leading ecosystems like Crypto Valley in Switzerland.
The Africa Blockchain Report is highly anticipated. What drove you to publish it?
A lot of Africa's narrative gets painted by people in developed markets who often haven't spent a day on the continent. Africa is a unique combination of 54 incredible markets — and those narratives are often painted without objective, quantifiable data. You need a benchmark and consistent data report that reflects the real opportunities and realities on the ground. That's what we're building with the Africa Blockchain Report, and we're proud to have enabling partners like Absa Bank — one of the largest banks on the African continent — supporting it.
What are the key takeaways? What should investors watching today be paying attention to?
When you think of Africa, you don't immediately think of advanced regulation — but one of the key findings is that 15 jurisdictions in Africa currently have legal clarity on digital assets. That's more than double the number from 2024. The market is moving fast in the right direction. And if you look at the underlying demographics — the world's youngest population, digitally native, high mobile money adoption, a proven propensity to leapfrog technology — the opportunity is clear. And yet African blockchain startups raised only $19 million in 2025. That is less than a small pre-seed round in Silicon Valley. In spite of the incredible opportunity, the market remains chronically underfunded.
Why isn't the capital flowing through to these opportunities?
Two key drivers. First, the knowledge gap — investors consistently speak about Africa as a single market, but it is 54 very distinct markets with unique consumer behaviours and economic realities. Understanding those nuances is difficult, which is why most institutional capital only arrives at growth stage rather than the early stage where it is most needed. Second, African blockchain is still a nascent ecosystem. We are getting there — companies like Yellowcard have raised large growth equity rounds — but to enable that pipeline, you need to fund the beginning of the funnel. That is what we are trying to do through the report and our accelerator programmes, bringing global protocols onto the continent and exposing them to the incredible talent available across Africa.
What sectors and use cases are actually hot in Africa right now?
Fintech is dominant — that is true globally but especially in Africa. Stablecoin-based financial services represent the most immediate opportunity, driven by the structural realities of financial market infrastructure on the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently the most expensive region in the world to remit money to. Stablecoins represent a genuine paradigm shift for that infrastructure. Companies like Yellowcard, which recently pivoted to B2B stablecoin payments, and startups like Credil, which empower African diaspora with remittance capabilities and access to financial products — these are the clearest and most immediate opportunities on the continent right now.
What do the capital flows between Abu Dhabi and Africa actually look like today?
Abu Dhabi is one of the leading jurisdictions globally, particularly through ADGM, in creating world-class regulatory frameworks. We are seeing that through specific initiatives like ADI Chain, which is working with governments in Kenya and with M-Pesa to bring world-class infrastructure — local currency stablecoins and institutional tokenization — to African markets, and to facilitate more trade along the Africa-UAE corridor. What would strengthen that further is regulatory harmonisation between the UAE and certain African markets, layered with bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, and a sustained flow of information and expertise between the regions. That combination could act as the real catalyst to accelerate trade and collaboration at scale.
That is a fantastic way to end the interview. Thank you very much, Brenton.
An absolute pleasure.
