DEAL: Nigerian fintech startup Kippa raises $8.4 million in seed round
Kippa, the financial management and payment platform for Nigerian small businesses, has announced that it has raised $8.4 million in a new round of funding. The funding, the startup said, was backed by international investors to develop products that will help SMEs grow their businesses.
Founded in June 2021, Kippa raised $3.2 million in pre-funding in November 2021 with the idea of putting merchants into an easy-to-use mobile bookkeeping app to help them digitize bookkeeping and collect customer debt. Today, the company has expanded the offer even further. It offers a suite of financial services that enable small business owners to legally incorporate their businesses, open bank accounts, receive and send payments, build online stores and manage their entire business from one platform.
The new funding round saw participation from global investors including Goodwater Capital, TEN13 VC, Rocketship VC, Saison Capital (the venture arm of Credit Saison), Crestone VC (led by Inanc Balci, co-founder and former CEO of Lazada), VentureSouq, Horizon Partners and Vibe Capital.
What they say
Commenting on the fundraiser, Kippa CEO Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph said: “We expect the number of digitally active small businesses to grow exponentially over the next three to five years. As more small businesses come online, Kippa will own the money button on these merchants’ devices.”
He noted that since the pre-seed announcement in November 2021, the company has made tremendous progress in recruiting former regulators and former senior executives at top startups, including OPay, BharatPe, Khatabook, TeamApt, OKCredit, NIBSS and Unified Payments, among others. Some important appointments, according to him, include hiring immediate past Deputy Managing Director of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Niyi Ajao as Chairman; Toyin Albert as Managing Director of Payment Services; and Osagie Alonge as Marketing Director,” he added.
“Our mission is to make it easy for anyone to start and run profitable small businesses in Africa. That’s why we’re building a complete suite of software and financial services that enable this ambition, thereby empowering African business owners. We say this because we have spent time understanding their most important needs,” he stated.
What you should know
- Spread across all 774 local governments in Nigeria, serving over 500,000 merchants in its network, the company has seen the annual transaction recorded on the platform exceed $3 billion.
- Kippa has also obtained a license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate as a super agent under the Payment Solution Service license category.
- The license allows Kippa to leverage its explosive merchant distribution to turn everyday neighborhood stores into a one-stop shop for essential financial services such as cash withdrawals and deposits, bank account opening, bills and utility payments and insurance.
- EFInA “Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2020 Survey” estimates that around 49.3 million business owners run small and medium-sized businesses in the country. Ekezie-Joseph believes that Kippa is well positioned as these SME companies’ supplier of financial services.
