Nigeria: Payments company raises $11.4m series A funding
ZirooPay announced the completion of its $11.4 million series A fundraising. The oversubscribed round was led by Lagos-based VC fund Zrosk Investment Management and existing investor Nordic VC Inventure.
Other participating investors in this round include institutional investors such as Fedha Capital Limited and Exotix Advisory as well as several individual investors.
Founded by Omoniyi Olawale (CEO) and Olusola Olawale (CTO), ZirooPay is a payments technology company that provides an Android-based retail point-of-sale (POS) solution which helps small businesses process card payments in real-time, even when there is no internet /data connection.
Its payments solution is fast, simple and reliable, delivering a 95% transaction success rate for POS transactions vs an average of 25-50% typically experienced in Nigeria. Leveraging on its unique and patented internet-free technology, ZirooPay helps SMEs (across the retail, agency banking, hospitality and services sectors) process in-person payments, track their sales, and manage their businesses from their mobile devices.
In addition to payments, ZirooPay provides merchants with automated sales history, sales analytics, and inventory tracking to help them monitor and manage their businesses more efficiently. ZirooPay’s superior transaction success rate and the integrated nature of its service stand it out from its competitors.
Omoniyi Olawale, CEO/ co-founder of ZirooPay asserted, “Digital payments still account for less than 5% of the retail activity in Nigeria and across Africa. Africa is bursting with entrepreneurial energy – from Lagos to Addis Ababa, from Cairo to Cape Town. By providing these SMEs with a reliable payment solution that is intentionally built for their peculiar needs, ZirooPay is contributing to fully realising Africa’s potential. We, the entire team of ZirooPay, are excited about the next phase of our journey to becoming the operating system for retail in Africa. With the unrelenting optimism of our customers and the support of our investors, we know it’s going to be a wonderful adventure of compounding impact.”
The managing director and chief investment officer of Zrosk, Samson Esemuede said, “The growth in the online economy of the African continent has been remarkable; however, the offline economy is orders of magnitude larger than the online economy. ZirooPay has a patented technology advantage (that works without an internet connection) and distribution model that significantly increases the odds of digitising the offline economy at a unit cost, making the story particularly compelling. The payment space has become well-resourced and competitive, but the white space we see in the digitisation of cash is the reason we are optimistic about the outlook for this investment. It hits right at the heart of what we are trying to achieve at Zrosk Investment Management. We are excited to be partnering with Omoniyi, Olusola and their team to play a role in trying to deepen financial inclusion on our continent.”
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