Kenyan-based bitcoin mining firm, Gridless has completed a recent seed investment which helped the company raise $2 Million.
The investment round raised by Jack Dorsey’s Block’ will aid the firm’s expansion plan.
Reports indicate that Dorsey’s digital payments firm, Block, and Stillmark, a bitcoin-focused venture firm led the seed investment for Gridless.
Gridless, which uses mines Bitcoin by using excess electricity generated by mini-hydropower plants is planning to launch a 50KW hydro-mine in Malawi and a 30KW solar-powered site in West Africa.
Through the proceeds made from the Bitcoin sold, the subsidizes the cost of electricity to users in Kenya’s rural areas.
As reported by CNBC, Gridless is also working on launching pilot mining projects.
“We had spent years building internet connectivity infrastructure in rural and urban Africa and realized that you cannot have a 21st-century economy without both power and connectivity together. As we looked at the next problem to solve, we realized that bitcoin mining solved a major problem for renewable mini-grid energy developers, in that we could be their industrial off-taker for stranded power, no matter where they were located, thereby making them more sustainable and increasing electrification across Africa.”CNBC quotes Philip Walton, one of the firm’s founders.
