Nigerian banking-as-a-service platform Maplerad raises $6 million led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures • TechCrunch

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms have taken off rapidly across the fintech world over the past 18 months. By partnering with banks, these platforms allow entities, from startups and fintechs to large corporations and banks, to offer tailored banking services and experiences to their customers.

Fintechs offering BaaS services in the US and Europe, such as Unit, Rapyd and Treasury Prime, have achieved significant scale due to the developed banking systems they enjoy in their markets. However, their counterparts are trying to replicate this growth in less advanced banking systems such as Africa, where the demand and scalability of such products is unproven.

In the latest development, Maplerad, a fintech described by the founders Miracle Anyanwu and Obinna Chukwujioke as a global BaaS player targeting Africa, has raised $6 million in seed funding. According to sources, US-based Maplerad, which is coming out of stealth, raised the round at a value of $30 million. The founders declined to comment.

Maplerad’s journey as a company can be traced back to 2020, when the founders launched their first product, Wirepay. The app started by helping users with international payments by offering payment solutions across national borders in fiat and cryptocurrency. However, it has since morphed into a self-described all-in-one financial product that enables users to receive, hold and make payments in multiple currencies, create virtual and physical cards and pay bills.

Last year, Wirepay raised an undisclosed pre-seed round, including a $125,000 check from OnDeck. Golden Palm Investments Corporation, Greenhouse Capital, some Stash executives and Berrywood Capital were other investors in the round.

As Wirepay grew to over 50,000 users, mostly in Nigeria, Anyanwu, on a call with TechCrunch, said businesses started asking about the internal infrastructure that powers the features on the consumer app. “People wanted to use the infrastructure that powers Wirepay, our license coverages and banking relationships,” said the CEO and CTO.

Anyanwu also mentioned that Maplerad (the parent company) had always wanted to spin out this infrastructure for other businesses. But as outside requests flooded in, they finally staged the beta launch of Maplerad, the infra product that allows businesses to build powerful financial functions like accounts, payments, currency and cards into their products, in August.

“From day one, when we built Wirepay for our consumers, we knew that the bottom line would be infrastructural even though we didn’t start the business infrastructure first. For anyone to be able to build something finance-related, they have a whole lot of banking stack that they have to start with, and even before they integrate features, they have to go past a lot of hurdles,” the CEO said. “One of them is banking and compliance. The other is licensing. So Maplerad solves financial infrastructure issues for these businesses in Africa. We handle the whole stack and offer best-in-class APIs to use that can get you launching a financial product within five minutes. So instead of a company spending 8 months and a few million dollars to start building a fintech product, you can integrate with our APIs and go live.”

Banking-as-a-service platforms have become popular among companies trying to build financial services into their offerings because large, established banks have been relatively slow to bring their services up to speed with the pace of change in the technology and banking worlds. As such, banking-as-a-service platforms see an opportunity to offer more personalized services and flexibility at lower costs. The space is heating up – some of Maplerad’s competitors in Nigeria include YC-backed Anchor, Bloc, OnePipe and larger fintechs like Flutterwave.

In an interview with TechCrunch in August, Anchor CEO Segun Adeyemi cited the founding team’s technical experience, attention to security and scalability, and the speed with which businesses can go live on the platform when asked about the startup’s advantage over others.

With a similar question, the Maplerad founders referred to the platform’s “broader range of banking relationships”, “unparalleled technology” and having the “best institutional investors/partners”. Meanwhile, James Fitzgerald, a partner at Valar Ventures, speaking about the investment, said that as large parts of Africa’s population remain financially excluded despite the continent’s maturing economies, “there is a huge opportunity for Maplerad, which is the best banking as a service solution to provide businesses with the financial infrastructure to scale across Africa and globally quickly and seamlessly.”

The Peter Thiel-founded VC firm led Maplerad’s seed round, its third African investment after Kuda and Yellow Card. Other investors in the round include Golden Palm Investments Corporation, Michael Vaughn (ex-COO, Venmo), Fintech Fund, Babs Ogundeyi (CEO, Kuda) Armyn Capital, Dunbar Capital, Strawhat Investment, Polymath Capital, Unpopular Ventures, Sean Mahsoul and MyAsiaVC. The founders said they also invested their money in the company.

While hidden, Maplerad processed millions of dollars monthly for over 100 businesses acquired on the platform, including startups such as Pastel, Spleet, Bridgecard, Onboardly, Vella, Crowdforce, Dojah, GetEquity and a few banks. It plans to use the investment to acquire more customers now that it is out of stealth, obtain additional licenses, build its team and strengthen its presence across Africa.