Nigerian Fintech start-up, Mono, has raised $ 2 million in seed investment to power the internet economy in Africa.
With the funding announced on Monday, Mono has attracted a total investment of $2.625 million since it launched in August 2020. Nine months ago, the Fintech Company raised $ 500,000 in pre-seed which was also followed by $125,000 from Y Combinator in March 2021.
“I’m excited to share that Mono has raised a $2M Seed round of funding from Entrée Capital (Investors in Stripe, Gusto, Kuda) and Gbenga Oyebode’s fund (TCVP), and our existing investors, Lateral Capital, also participated. Finally, Babalola Ogundeyi ( CEO of Kuda Bank), and many incredible angel investors also joined the round,” Abdul Hassan, who cofounded the company with Prakhar Singh said.
The new capital, according to the company will enable it to double down on its core platform ( Mono Connect) and launch new products and features to ensure Mono is the most powerful and reliable way for businesses and developers to access financial accounts in Africa.
In a region where more than half of the population is either unbanked or underbanked, open finance players like Mono are trying to improve financial inclusion and connectivity on the continent. The less than a year old company helps digital businesses in Africa access their customers’ financial account for data and payments.
Open finance thrives on the notion that access to a financial ecosystem via open APIS and new routes to move money, access financial information and make borrowing decisions reduces the barriers and costs of entry for the underbanked.
“We’re thinking of how we can power the internet economy with data that isn’t necessarily financial data. For instance, think about open data for telcos. Imagine where you can move your data from one telco to another instead of getting a new SIM card and making a fresh registration. That’s where I see the market going, at least for us at Mono,”
Hassan said.
Read Also: Cellulant: the untold story of the crises that rocked one of Africas leading fintechs
A combination of factors which include, a growing tech talent pool, a vibrant startup ecosystem and a rapidly expanding urban population are projected by Google and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to drive the growth in Africa’s internet economy.
With the innovative products, Mono’s founders are planning to introduce to the African market to boost credit assessment and other financial services; it will be contributing to the growth of the region’s internet economy.
Google and IFC, estimates that Africa’s Internet economy has the potential to reach 5.2 percent of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, contributing nearly $180 billion to the overall economy.
Mono will use the funding to reinforce its current financial and identity data offerings and launch new products for diverse business verticals, the company said.
With existing partners like Gtbank, Fidelity Bank and three unannounced banks and the mobile money service arm of MTN Ghana, Mono plans to spread its expansion wings to Ghana and Kenya.
While it was unable to make meet the expansion plans in Q1 2021, the recent funding raised from investors will fasten its move to go live in Ghana next month.
“Our expansion is mostly inspired by our customers looking to expand to other markets, same with some of our products. We work with our customers to give them the right tools to build new experiences for their customers,” Hassan said.
