Nigerian Fintech startup, TeamApt, has successfully raised an undisclosed amount in its Series B funding round.
Although the exact amount raised wasn’t revealed, sources close to the organization claims that it’s way higher than $20m but less than $100 million.
The funding round was led by Novastar Ventures with participation from FMO, Global Ventures, CDC, Oui Capital, Kepple Africa Ventures, Soma Capital, and a syndicate of local angel investors including Gbenga Oyebode.
The company’s previous funding was a $5.5 million Series A round led by Quantum Capital Partners in 2019.
According to the fintech, this new influx of funds will be used to extend its offerings directly to customers and micro-SMEs by giving them access to the financial access lifelines they need to succeed. It also plans to expand its solutions beyond Nigeria.
Speaking on the investment, Noor Sweid, Founder and General Partner of Global Ventures expressed excitement at supporting the company’s ambitious expansion plans focused on driving value across the financial services chain.
“It is with great enthusiasm that we are partnering with TeamApt on their mission to bank the unbanked and underbanked across Africa. Tosin and the team’s mission-driven and product focused approach has translated into the development of an optimized POS and one of the largest agent networks in Nigeria in a relatively short span of time. We are excited to back TeamApt, alongside this consortium of investors, to support the company on its ambitious expansion plans focused on driving value across the financial services chain.”
Noor Sweid, Founder and General Partner of Global Ventures
Banking the unbanked in Africa
Founded in 2015 by several breakout employees of Interswitch, TeamApt initially started by building digital banking solutions for banks. In 2019, the company pivoted into providing financial services for the underserved mass market in Africa.
According to the company, Over 50% of Nigeria’s 99 million adult population are financially underserved, comprising 36 million unbanked 14.5 million underbanked people.
With its financial product available in Nigeria’s 36 states, TeamApt is tackling this exclusion profitably with its hybrid solution.
TeamApt is bridging the gap through a current distribution network of over 100,000 agents and reliable technology-enabled payment solutions.
In less than two years, TeamApt rapidly scaled its agent banking product, Moniepoint, to serve about 29 million previously-underserved individuals who had limited access to financial services.
Through its flagship products, Moniepoint and payment gateway Monnify – TeamApt revealed that it has processed a total of $17.5 billion worth of transactions in the past 12 months.
It also reported a 1,081% increase from the previous year, with an average of 68 million transactions performed on its platform every month.
With the new influx of funds, the company plans to further leverage its agent network to provide wider financial services to the underserved consumers and businesses in Nigeria.
Expanding beyond Nigeria
After its immense impact in Nigeria, TeamApt is now setting its sights on other markets around Africa.
According to Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TeamApt, Tosin Eniolorunda, the funding will allow the company to extend its solutions to other parts of Africa.
“This fundraise is happening at a significant time in our growth as a company. In the past years, we have exceeded several strategic milestones without external funding, helping accelerate the Central Bank of Nigeria’s target of 95% financial inclusion by 2024, but as the hurdles of financial access are not unique to Nigeria, this funding allows us to extend our solutions to other parts of Africa”.
During the company’s media session in June, Eniolorunda revealed that TeamApt is already on the ground in the 3rd largest francophone Africa economy setting up similar operations.
He also added that they are looking at countries like Cameroun, Uganda, Congo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania
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