With over ₦250m monthly revenue, CashBox is seeking investment for expansion

As part of its campaign to present itself attractive to potential investors, Nigerian savings platform, CashBox, at a press conference in its office in Lagos Wednesday, said that it has made tremendous growth in the past few years.

Since its founding in 2019, the company said that it has drastically increased its customer base to over 200,000 people, that account for its currently 250 million monthly volume.

The CEO and founder, Sydney Aigbogun, at a media parley, told journalists that the company has achieved this in part by adding new products and features on the app tailored to the immediate needs of customers.

The app now has an entirely new design running on version 5.0 and includes biometric login, a feature to hide account balance and dark mode, making it more user friendly. It has rolled out investment options for account holders also on the app. And the company has moved to bigger office space and is now ready to market its products to the public.

All this Aigbogun said he has done avoiding the path that his peers have taken – seeking investors to scale up at the onset of their companies.

The rise of CashBox

In the early days of CashBox, he too wanted to j0in the bandwagon and go the investment route. But the processes and the meetings were taking time away from the product, and so he chose to focus fully on the product, making it more attractive for customers.

So far, we haven’t raised any funds, he said. “You are used to hearing this startup have raised money…We met with investors…They were really interested…We had over 10 meetings.” But he had read an article that advised founders in the early stage of their company to focus more on the product if they can and that’s what he did. “I just stopped and since then there’s been a jump.”

“If you can afford to still grow on your own…put in your money…and leave the funding…and focus on the product,” he said.

The future of CashBox

Now that he has built the product, he is ready to “just take the company to the next level,” by going after new customers and recruiting more team members. Now, he will see investors. “Going forward we’ll need investors…but we’ll be in a better position now…we are way more attractive,” he said.

Because of the history of erratic government policies in Nigeria, the word “invest” is a source of great unease for many Nigerians. Aigbogun says that CashBox is responsible for the risks on the investment that they put on the app. The investments cut across agriculture and real estate.

Aigbogun said he boycotts real estate companies and works directly with engineers to try to reduce the risk factor, to “make sure the funds are 100 per cent safe.”

How do CashBox maintain customers trusts?

But there is still so much that needs to be done before CashBox can beat its chest at the centre of the market square that it has become profitable.

More regulations are still needed from SEC and CBN to help root out the weeds in the fintech space to bolster the trust the populace have in keeping their money with them.

But trust in the meantime is barely a problem for CashBox. Already customers are doing the work of defending the company on the internet clapping back at sceptics on social media.