Bitcoin crowdfunding platform launched in Cape Town, South Africa

Rlabs, a socially influential startup park in Cape Town, South Africa, has launched a Bitcoin crowdfunding platform - mToto, on which users can use Bitcoin for investment.

mToto, which means “child” in Swahili, is the brainchild of Uusi and Rlabs, a Bitcoin-based company that hopes to use the platform to help rebuild underserved education and health centers in resource-poor regions of South Africa and develop tools for innovative challenges and products.

mToto will also provide companies and projects with a bitcoin-to-cash exchange service, and it hopes to raise enough bitcoin to invest in four companies or projects each month.

“We convert Bitcoin into cash and resources, and share the results with the greater community every month,” the mToto team explained.

Marlon Parker, the project's director and founder of Rlabs, told Disrupt Africa, an African news site, that the organization will help early-stage companies.

“We’re targeting people who are already using bitcoin and are interested in using it for charitable causes,” Parker said. “In this case, we’re targeting people who are interested in children’s development.”

Rlabs was founded in 2007 to provide an innovation-friendly environment for startups and small business investment projects. Its early initiatives, such as its call for youth cafes, have attracted more than 20,000 people and it opened a studio at the BBC in May.

Rlabs pursues the Bitcoin project because it believes that the digital currency could be a catalyst for social change in Africa. The group's founder explained that those who participate in the group can benefit greatly from extremely low Bitcoin transaction fees and direct transactions.