a16z backs $20 million round for Valora, a digital wallet built on Celo

Valora, a mobile wallet built for use on the Celo network, has received backing from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and other investors to the tune of $20 million.

The wallet project began as an in-house project of cLabs, and with the $20 million in hand, Valora will evolve as a stand-alone company led by Jackie Bona, former head of consumer growth for cLabs. 

Other investors in the $20 million round include Polychain Capital, SV Angel, Nima Capital, NFX, and Valor Capital.

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"We’re excited to support the team as they continue to develop the product and give even more people around the world access to crypto," a16z partners Katie Haun and Arianna Simpson wrote in a blog post announcing the VC firm's involvement in the raise. 

The raise comes months after a16z backed a $20 million funding round for Celo. The fundraise in February coincided with the official launch of Valora. Other firms, such as PayU and Deutsche Telekom, have also invested in Celo.

Celo, a decentralized stablecoin project focused on payments as a use case, has historically taken a mobile-centric approach to development, with advisor Morgan Beller — a co-creator of the Libra project — framing the project as "like Venmo for crypto" during a past interview with The Block.