El Dorado P2P, a peer-to-peer platform for buying stablecoins in Latin America, has successfully completed its pre-seed round of $450,000 through the startup accelerator Berkeley Skydeck at the University of California, Berkeley. The funds will be used to further expand their P2P services in the region and open their peer-to-peer market to other companies through an API and an easily integratable widget.
To date, El Dorado has raised $450,000 in funding and adds Berkeley Skydeck to its list of key investors, alongside Flori Ventures, Startup Istanbul, Auston Bunsen - Co-founder of Quicknode, and other angel investors. This way, the Latin American startup joins the few in the region to have been accepted into the Berkeley Skydeck program.
By opening their peer-to-peer market, El Dorado will allow other crypto wallets, fintechs, exchanges, web3 protocols, and others to connect to their over 50 local payment methods. El Dorado plans to enable this new product for its P2P platform later this year while preparing to raise its seed round in September.
Guillermo Goncalvez, CEO and Co-founder of eldorado.io, believes that "P2P crypto markets cater to the financial needs of Latin Americans, a type of consumer who currently uses multiple platforms to save and make payments but requires a simple way to deposit or withdraw funds between all of them."
The business model used by most centralized exchanges makes it difficult for them to navigate the crypto markets in the region, as they require an account for each jurisdiction and payment method to accept regional currencies. In this context, the P2P model benefits and provides an ideal solution for crypto users in emerging markets.
The departure of LocalBitcoins, the former largest P2P Bitcoin market in the world, has left over 8 million affected and underserved customers.
"We are pleased to have raised our pre-seed round with one of the leading startup accelerators in North America. This round will allow us to open our peer-to-peer market to other financial service providers and expand it to Brazil, Peru, and other markets this year."
