Celo Labs, an ‘open platform’ dedicated to making the world carbon negative, won the Social Impact Award at the inaugural Crypties Awards held on November 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, USA.

Billed as the Web3 Oscars, the event was hosted by Decrypt Studios, a film and production company financed by Joseph Lubin, co-founder of the Ethereum cryptocurrency platform.

And the #Crypties The Social Impact Award goes to… the Celo community! #SomosCelohttps://t.co/yZ2haMN9fw

— Celo (@CeloOrg) December 2, 2022

In addition to the social impact award, there were winners in 9 other categories, including NFT Project of the Year and Metaverse Project of the Year.

Celo is a mobile first blockchain platform that has established itself in Africa with various programs to accelerate the growth of blockchain for social impact with a particular focus on financial inclusion. Celo says it is driven by a mission to create a new economic paradigm, one centered on a regenerative economy to create prosperity for all.’

Below are some of the programs that Celo has targeting Africa:

Defi Loan Pilots

Celo, in collaboration with various organizations, has implemented several pilots testing how people in Africa can reap the benefits of blockchain.

In April 2022, Celo partnered with Mercy Corps Ventures to leverage Moola Market, a Celo-based lending and borrowing protocol, and Kotani Pay, an inbound/outbound provider in Africa, to launch a stablecoin-based lending model. at the employer in Nanyuki, Kenya. initially targeted at farmers employed by Cinch Markets.

This pilot, the first of its kind, explored a scalable solution for microlending that leverages Celo’s mobile-friendly blockchain. From the pilot, farmers were able to access loans at an annual interest rate of 8%, significantly cheaper than the 20% offered by local banks.

“This is the best loan group I’ve ever seen” said participating pilot Ephraim Wachira. “It’s the first I’ve seen with such a low interest rate.”

DeFi for the people

Celo’s experiments with DeFi are part of a broader belief in the sector’s potential to deliver economic benefits around the world.

In 2021, Celo announced a partnership with some of the top DeFi projects for an initiative called DeFi for the people.

Partners include some of the most popular DeFi projects:

This is a long-term program designed to help DeFi scale globally, especially in emerging markets and countries in Africa where the growing industry has yet to make an impact.

DeFi for the People will enable developers around the world to create products that make DeFi more accessible and easier to use for people in the developing world.

The initiative will feature $100 million contributed by participants to support educational initiatives, grants and incentives to fulfill their ambition.

Web3 Fund for African start-ups looking to transition from Web2

In July 2022, Celo launched The Celo Africa Web3 Fund for invest in and help scale Web2 organizations looking to incorporate web3.

Along with multiple partners including:

• unicorn growth capital
• ape unit
• echo VC
• uncovered fund, and
• Flori Ventures

Celo sought out Web2 founders from the payment, remittance, cryptocurrency, savings, loan, and financial services sectors related to interest in cryptocurrency to apply for the fund.

See also

Up to 50 successful applicants in each key country will secure access to equity investors, venture capital financing, technical and business mentoring, marketing support and decentralized listing opportunities.

Celo Africa Regional DAO

In August 2022, the Celo Africa team proposed a regional DAO that would foster a local approach to growing the Celo ecosystem in Africa.

Focused on Africa, the DAO’s purpose would be to “win the hearts and minds of Web3 creators across Africa” ​​by empowering them to fuel the growth of the Celo ecosystem from the ground up.

The proposal requests $507,000 from Celo to support 4 specific areas of activity for the DAO. The first would involve organizing hackathons with the goal of producing projects that eventually receive funding from the Celo ecosystem.

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