Bankly Raises $2 million Led by Vault and Flutterwave
Bankly, a Nigerian fintech startup providing cash digitization services through online and offline models recently closed a $2 million seed round. The round was led by co-investors including Africa’s leading payments technology company Flutterwave and Vault, the holding company of VANSO; a fintech acquired by Interswitch in 2016. Other investors who took part in the funding round include Plug and Play Ventures, Rising Tide Africa, and Chrysalis Capital.
According to Idris Alubankudi Saliu, partner at Vault, Bankly has a strong understanding of the market needs as well as the team, strategy and technology needed to bring affordable financial services to the unbanked.
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On the successful fundraise, Tomilola Adejana, Chief Executive Officer, Bankly stated that
“We are thrilled to have closed this milestone fundraise and to have such seasoned fintech investors who understand the market join us on this journey to banking Nigeria’s unbanked. Now we have built the agent network and are poised to serve customers directly via offline and online channels. Partnerships, collaboration, and a deep understanding of the needs of the unbanked will be vital to our success.”
Founded in 2018 by Tomilola Adejana and Fredrick Adams, Bankly operates by digitizing the informal thrift collection system popular in Nigeria as “ajo”. Bankly is helping unbanked populations in Nigeria by digitizing the entire money collection process and giving users the privilege to save their money through online and offline methods. The company has a distribution and agents’ network that enables customers to easily make deposits and withdraw cash.
The fintech startup aims to solve challenges associated with offline or informal thrift savings such as trust, security, and proximity. To begin, Bankly developed an agent network over the last 18 months to provide better access as well as boost confidence among users and prospective ones. According to Tomilola Adejana, developing an agent network is only a first step in the startup’s proposed three-phase process of achieving financial inclusion through digitizing financial services.
Bankly currently has 15,000 agents, with plans to build its present 35,000 customer base to two million in three years, as well as launch various consumer products in the coming months. These plans according to the company, will be achieved through investments received from companies within the Nigerian fintech space.