Silvia Naishtat
07/26/2021 23:00
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 07/26/2021 11:00 PM
Marcelo Cavazzoli graduated as a computer engineer at the UBA and thanks to frequenting this environment of “nerds”, as he defines it, he founded his own start up.
Cavazzoli is 29 years old and joined Borja Martel, 24, as a partner. Together they created Lemon Cash in the
midst of the pandemic.
He still gets emotional when he remembers that when they wanted to get going they couldn't convince relatives and friends.
That's why they called her Lemon.
The truth is that they
started from scratch
with the platform for a sector that is gaining prominence: that of cryptocurrencies.
And in just one year they
reaped 60 thousand clients.
In recent weeks, through emails, WhatsApp and the push of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that facilitates contacts and arrivals, they managed to capture
US $ 16.3 million to launch in the region.
Tim Drapper, the tech guru and millionaire who is quite a
celebrity in his native US,
was one of those who contributed several million in a round led by Kingsway Capital, a major UK investment fund.
Another was Andrés Bilbao, the founder of Rappi.
Global investors such as Brazilian Valor Capital, Cadenza Ventures, Trampoline Venture Partners, Coinbase Ventures and Argentina's Supervielle bank also joined in.
It is the most important investment for a fintech.
The feature of Lemon Cash is that you can
use the critical coins in real life.
That is, convert them into pesos and apply them to payments or purchases.
It works like a digital wallet.
And it has an alliance with Visa to use cryptocurrencies in 60 million businesses around the world.
In the Argentina of the stocks, cryptocurrencies find fertile ground, since they are a
shortcut to get to the currency.
With Lemon Cash they proposed an easy way to use crypto assets: through a multi-currency account, with the possibility of exchanging funds in pesos, bitcoin, ethers and even Tether, a currency that is parity with the dollar. They say that Argentina
is at the forefront in the region in blockchain technology and that exceptional developers can be found here
. Hence the bet to grow in the region. They are landing in Peru, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Ecuador. In all cases, the process begins with requests for a license to operate.
Cavazzoli believes that cryptocurrencies with its blockchain technological system is producing a technological revolution similar to that of the birth of the internet. “When I finished college in 2013,
Bitcoin was worth US $ 100
, it is true that it has volatility but today it is used by 106 million people who are buying a piece of the future. A universe is being created parallel to financial transactions. This is just beginning ”, he enthuses
Clarín.