Nigerian Fintech Appzone Raises $10 Million in Series A to Scale its Products and Services
Appzone, one of Africa’s leading fintech software provider building innovative technology and enabling digital financial services for financial institutions has closed $10 million in Series A to Scale its Products and Services.
The Series A round was led by CardinalStone Capital Advisors, an investment firm in Lagos, Nigeria. Other investors include V8 Capital, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures and Lateral Investment Partner, an Africa-focused firm.
Focused on building proprietary solutions for financial institutions as well as their banking and payments services, Appzone was founded in 2008 by Emeka Emetarom, Obi Emetarom and Wale Onawunmi. The startup’s platforms are used by 18 commercial banks and over 450 micro-finance banks in Africa.
Appzone, unique from other African fintech startups functions as an enabler (at payment rails and the core infrastructure) within banking and payments. According to its CEO, Obi Emetarom, Appzone was created to build out innovative local solutions for banking and payments in Africa, with a focus to create proprietary technology for both segments.
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Before this funding, Appzone closed a $2 million deal from South African Business Connexion (BCX) in 2014, raising $2.5 million in convertible debt after four years and returning shares from BCX in the process. In total, the company says it has raised $15 million in equity funding.
According to the company, this new investment will be used to scale its products and services and expand to more countries on the continent. A part of the development will include growing its engineering team to achieve scale.
On the new funding, here’s what Yomi Jemibewon, Cofounder and Managing Director of CardinalStone Capital Advisers have to say:
“Appzone is building a disruptive fintech ecosystem that will be the backbone of Africa’s finance industry with products across payments, infrastructure, and software as a service. The impact of Appzone’s work is multifold — the company’s products deepen financial inclusion across the continent whilst providing best-fit and low-cost solutions to financial institutions. Its emphasis on premium talent also helps stem brain drain, rewarding Africa’s best brains with best-in-class employment opportunities.”
Since starting operations, Appzone, an achiever of many firsts has led Africa’s fintech sector in the global space. Asides from creating the world’s first decentralized payment processing network, Appzone created the first core banking and omnichannel software on the cloud and the first multi-bank direct debit service based on single global mandates.