Finovate Global Nigeria: Payments, Supply Chain Financing, and a Look at our African Alums

This week Finovate Global looks at recent fintech news from Africa’s most populous nation: Nigeria.

Nigerian blockchain network Zone secures investment

Last week in Finovate Global we noted the news that Nigerian blockchain network Zone had raised $8.5 million in seed funding. This week we’re filling in some of the details of the investment – and of the company.

Flourish Ventures and TLcom Capital led the oversubscribed seed funding round for Zone. Also participating in the funding were VC firms Digital Currency Group, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, and Alter Global.

Zone split from its parent firm Appzone to become a standalone business – as well as the first regulated blockchain network for payments on the continent – in 2022. Zone’s network facilitates direct transactions between financial service providers without the participation of an intermediary, and automates settlement, reconciliation, and dispute management. Zone’s technology digitizes fiat payments and enables the transition to digital currencies.

Zone co-founder and CEO Obi Emetarom highlighted the fact the Zone was able to secure funding during the current investment drought, calling it a “sign of trust in the Zone brand and investor excitement about the opportunity to redefine payment infrastructure in Africa.”

The company will leverage the new capital to expand its network’s coverage. Zone currently has more than 15 of Africa’s largest banks and fintechs using its network to process payments.

Afreximbank and Sterling Bank Promote Innovation in Supply Chain Financing

A newly announced partnership between African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Sterling Bank will enable the African financial institution to offer an increasingly popular supply chain financing solution, Payables Finance, in Nigeria. The solution will be branded, Afreximbank Tradelink, and will be made available as part of the Africa Trade Gateway (ATG). ATG provides digital solutions to help businesses access market data, network with buyers and sellers, promote trade payments between African markets in local currencies, and more.

One of the fastest growing trade finance solutions worldwide, Payables Finance helps suppliers access funding by securing early payment on those invoices that have already been approved for payment by corporate buyers. Buyers receive trade credit from suppliers. Suppliers finance their working capital via the early payment they received. The cost of financing is based on the credit rating of the buyers, which can be a significant benefit for smaller suppliers that struggle to secure financing at affordable prices.

“Afreximbank identified supply chain finance as a solution for improving access to trade finance in Africa and embarked on a journey to increase penetration through financial intervention and capacity building,” Afreximbank Global Trade Bank EVP Haytham ElMaayergi said.

Nigeria-based Payments Solution Thepeer Closes Down

Some unfortunate news in the world of Nigerian fintech: Nigeria-based startup Theeper has shut down and is returning all remaining capital to investors. Theeper leverages APIs to give fintechs and other businesses an alternative network where they can promote easy money movement for customers via different solutions they can embed into their apps and websites. The company had hoped to connect digital wallets across 400 fintechs across Africa to facilitate payments.

Thepeeer had secured $2.1 million in seed funding in June 2022. But as the company’s founders acknowledged in a statement earlier this week, Thepeer was struggling to scale and, despite its “unique service” and technology, “the overall acceptance of wallets as a viable payment option didn’t grow as rapidly as we had hoped.”

“A big thank you to our customers, employees past and present, our investors, the tech community and everyone who believed in us and contributed to our journey,” Thepeer co-founders Michael “Trojan” Okoh and Chike Ononye wrote on the company blog. “In our bid to chase the stars, we must realign and focus on what matters.”

Finovate’s African alums: From innovations in lending to authentication

Most of our alums based in Africa made their Finovate debuts at our conference in Capetown, South Africa in 2018. Here’s a look at some of the companies headquartered or founded in Africa that have demoed their technologies on the Finovate stage.

Craft Silicon – Founded in 2010. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Provides fintech services and consulting to facilitate digital transformation, mobile application development, software engineering, and more.

Drive Revenue – Founded in 2013. Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa. Provides an enterprise grade cloud accounting solution for the legal profession.

Entersekt – Founded in 2008 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Provides transaction authentication services to help financial institutions defend themselves against fraudsters.

Lidya – Founded in 2016 in Lagos, Nigeria. Offers digital banking services including a receivables-based loan product.

OUTvest – Founded in 2017. Headquartered in Centurion, South Africa. Offers an evidence-based, hybrid robo advisor that helps individuals build and manage their own investment strategy. Won Best of Show.

truID – Founded in 2017. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Offers a data sharing ecosystem to securely share personal financial data between consumers and credit providers.

Yoco Technologies – Founded in 2014. Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa. Builds tools and offers services to help small businesses get paid, operate more efficiently, and grow.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Central Bank of India (CBI) partnered with Veefin Solutions to support its supply chain finance operations.

Saudi Arabian fintech EdfaPay teammed up with Pakistan-based bookkeeping and accounting app Digikhata.

Sachin Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart, is reportedly looking to raise between $200 million and $400 million for his new startup Navi.

Latin America and the Caribbean

FinTech Magazine looked at the rise of Brazil’s Pix payments system and the challenge it brings to the credit card industry.

Colombian fintech Addi raised $86 million in a round led by Goldman Sachs and Singapore’s GIC.

Fintech Nexus featured Brazilian fintech Nubank and its quest for partners in Mexico.

Asia-Pacific

In-app and in-store financial solutions provider UnaFinancial unveiled a new lending app for customers in the Philippines.

Industry advocacy group Fintech Australian introduced its new CEO Rehan D’Almeida.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched a new digital platform, Cosmic, to enable FIs to share customer data to help combat money laundering.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Ghanaian fintech Zeepay completed an equity investment round featuring pan-African investors Africa50, Oikocredit, Injaro, Verdant Capital Hybrid Fund, and I&P.

South Africa’s Absa Group encouraged African fintechs to list IPOs on local exchanges.

SC Ventures forged a strategic partnership with NEXT176, the investment arm of Pan-African financial services group, Old Mutual.