Brass, a Nigerian fintech startup has announced that it has raised $1.7m in funding for geographical expansion and increased product offerings.
The round was led by Ventures Platform with participation from Hustle Fund, Acuity Ventures and Uncovered Fund. Angel investors such as Flutterwave CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, and Paystack co-founder, Ezra Olubi also contributed to the funding.
Founded in July 2020 by Sola Akindolu and Emmanuel Okeke, Brass is a platform that provides banking services to small and medium businesses.
Akindolu was the former head of product at Kudi financial service providers while Okeke was an engineering manager at Paystack.
Ventures Platform founder, Kola Aina said the startup’s mission to make banking work for small businesses was one reason for their investment. General partner at Hustle Fund, Elizabeth Yin expressed excitement at the investment.
“We are excited to back Sola and the Brass team, who are providing critical financial technology to Africa’s businesses, starting with Nigeria’s approximately 41.5 million businesses”
Elizabeth Yin, the general partner at Hustle Fund.
What Brass does
Access to comprehensive banking solutions is one of the many difficulties that SMEs face in Nigeria and Africa at large. There are already a number of startups looking to fill the gap such as Sparkle, Carbon and Prospa.
What sets Brass apart from the others is their financial operations and cash flow support available from one business account.
Brass offers a suite of products like credit and payment services, payroll and expense management. It also offers API support, cash-flow analytics, team and contact management. The startup also delves into other core business services such as POS, debit and credit cards.
Brass Capital claims to have provided credit services worth more than $2 million for 24 beta customers after six months. It has over 5,000 customers ranging from schools and malls to fintechs such as Eden and Mono, which use its complete banking solutions. The fintech makes money from providing credit and API calls on its regular product offering.
Expansion plans
According to CEO Akindolu, this latest funding will drive its expansion into other African countries like Kenya and South Africa by next year. To achieve this, Brass has partnered with Flutterwave, an African based fintech company that provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.
Brass also plans to diversify its customer base by launching more product categories, especially around credit in its markets.
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