Pezesha, Duplo, SubsBase, Gray and more

A handy summary of the recent funding efforts of fintech companies across Africa. Featuring Pezesha, Duplo, SubsBase, Gray and Anchor.

Kenyan embedded finance startup Pezesha have raised 11 million dollars in a pre-Series A funding round, a mix of $6 million in equity and $5 million in debt.

The round was led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II with participation from Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, cFund, IOG, Talanton and Verdant Capital Specialist Funds.

Pezesha says the funding will be used to scale operations in core markets and expand into new markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Founded in 2017 by Hilda Moraa, Pezesha offers a B2B lending infrastructure with the aim of providing “affordable” working capital to financially excluded small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa.

Pezesha also offers financial literacy courses and debt counseling for firms that do not qualify for loans “to improve credit ratings and secure responsible loans”.

B2B payment technology startup Duplo has landed 4.3 million dollars in seed funding, with a total of 45 investors participating in the round.

Duplo raises $4.3 million

Some of the investors include Liquid2 Ventures, Soma Capital, Tribe Capital, Commerce Ventures, Basecamp Fund and Y Combinator, along with existing investor Oui Capital.

Launched in January 2022 and based in Lagos, Nigeria, Duplo’s platform helps “digitize and simplify” the way money moves between businesses and their partners.

African businesses can onboard their merchants on the platform to collect payments digitally and automate payments to suppliers.

The Nigerian fintech also offers back office services such as invoice generation and processing, receipt and approval of bills, collection and disbursement of funds and account reconciliation.

Egyptian subscription and recurring revenue management platform SubsBase has secured 2.4 million dollars in a seed funding round led by Global Ventures.

Also participating were HALA Ventures, P1 Ventures, Plus Venture Capital, Plug and Play Tech Center, Ingressive Capital, Camel Ventures, Falak Startups and Arzan Venture Capital.

Claiming to be the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s “first and only” subscription management platform, SubsBase says it plans to use its “first mover advantage” to expand across the region.

“Our platform empowers subscription-based and recurring businesses to use the collection, operations, analytics and billing tools to efficiently manage their customers – freeing them to concentrate on growing their business,” the startup says.

Founded in 2020 and based in Cairo, SubsBase uses cloud technology to run its no/low-code platform. They intend to use the new money to hire more staff and promote their brand.

Nigerian fintech startup Grey have raised 2 million dollars in seed funding.

Participants in the round included Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Heirloom Fund and True Culture Fund, as well as angel investors Alan Rutledge, Samvit Ramadurgam and Karthik Ramakrishnan.

Gray enables cross-border payments for Africans

Founded in 2020, Gray enables Africans to set up an overseas USD, GBP and EUR bank account for free, send money to the UK and Europe and receive payments from over 88 countries.

With the new infusion of capital, Gray says it plans to launch new markets and expand its product offering to both money transfers and person-to-person and B2B payments, “so that all Africans can enjoy seamless cross-border payments with low fees”.

The startup also enables users to convert funds into their local currency to spend through the app.

Along with the funding, Gray also announced its expansion into East Africa, starting in Kenya, as well as partnerships with African payments giant Cellulant and ed-tech Moringa.

Anchora bank-as-a-service (BaaS) and embedded finance platform for Africa, has emerged from stealth in public beta and packed 1 million dollars in pre-seed funding.

Anchor has received funding from Y Combinator, Byld Ventures, Niche Capital, Mountain Peak Capital, Luno Expeditions and other angel investors.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Lagos, the Nigerian fintech provides APIs and tools for businesses to build, embed and launch banking products, including bank accounts, money transfer services, savings products and card issuance, among others.

Since launching its private beta three months ago, Anchor claims to have done “several millions” in sales for a number of companies and has over 40 businesses on its waiting list.