Tosin Olaseinde’s Ladda is Showing Nigerians Ways to Grow their Money

Launching in the same space as Trove, and other fintech startups that connect people to credible investment opportunities is daunting. But the space is young, the demand is high and Ladda has seen consistent growth in the number of people who use its fintech services monthly.

Oluwatosin Olaseinde launched Ladda (getLadda) in 2020. Before the startup kickstarted, Tosin had a community of over 2,000 members that she taught about money and how to grow it. However, when it came to investing, the members always complained about the number of apps that had to be downloaded in order to have access to a lot of options.

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“If a person wanted to get insurance as well as invest in agricultural ventures and stocks, a separate app had to be downloaded for each,” Tosin told TechNext.

With the challenge in mind, she launched Ladda as a solution to help people get the much needed financial services all in one place.

Last October, the startup launched its minimum viable product into the market in the form of an android app. With it, users can put money in high-interest savings if they have a low-risk appetite. The investment options on the app currently include naira and dollar mutual funds which offer returns of about 7% annually.

Based on the budget and financial goal of the individual, s/he can create a portfolio with an assortment of investment options and dedicate a sum of money to fund them periodically.

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Competition, including Risevest, Chaka and Trove finance also offer mutual bonds and other local and global options to users. Stocks of companies like Amazon, Tesla, Pfizer and Apple can be found on these apps. Ladda’s next major update is already in the works and will expose its users to a wide range of global stocks that they can also invest in from Nigeria.

One of the challenges the startup has faced since launch has been to get the right team together. “Getting the right set of talents to work with us was a challenge at first, but we were able to conquer it,” Tosin said.

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Like other fintechs, the restriction on BVN use was also a brief challenge that the startup faced. However, a different approach is being worked on to allow the use of alternative identity details for Know Your Customer (KYC) purposes.

Ladda’s primary aim is to reach people who have not been exposed to investment opportunities and expand the fintech market. It has been gaining traction as well, with a 25% month-on-month growth in subscriber base, according to Olaseinde.

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Transaction fees are what brings in money for the company. It charges a token on each amount that is processed for users. The charge can be calculated upfront using the calculator on its web app. For a transaction between $200 and $299, the charge is $2 while it is $3 for the range of $300 and $399 and so on.

Ladda is the only African startup that has made it to the final stage of the Seedstars competition. With more than 5,000 applications from different parts of the world, only 5 startups have been shortlisted for the last arm for the chance to win $500,000 in equity-based funding. It will be pitching on May 20 alongside the other startups at the finale.