Nigeria: TLcom Capital announces first fintech investment
Nigerian fintech platform Okra has secured a $1 million pre-seed fundraise from TLcom Capital, strengthening its push to build the infrastructure for Africa’s next wave of fintech innovation. With the first API in Africa to retrieve real-time financial data from a bank account to any web or mobile app, Okra’s new investment will be used to scale its team and operations.
Launched in January 2020, Okra’s “super-connector” creates a secure portal and process to exchange real-time financial information between customers, applications and banks. Currently, developers and organisations in Africa do not have access to real-time banking data, creating large hurdles during the onboarding and verification of customers. Okra is the first in Africa to bridge this gap, delivering a new layer of transparency between organisations and users in the lending, personal and corporate finance and real estate sectors.
Speaking on the new investment, Fara Ashiru Jituboh, Okra’s CEO/CTO stated, “Our thesis is simple – financial innovation cannot exist without the proper infrastructure, which is data. Essentially, how far the African fintech sector can grow is intrinsically tied to the success of an infrastructure like Okra and with our core market in Nigeria, we’re opening the door to another level of innovation in Africa’s largest market.
“There are approximately 125 million bank accounts in Nigeria alone – but over the course of the next two years, we will see that figure rise exponentially, which presents huge opportunities for growth. Our role within this is to deliver ease, speed and transparency to key players within the fintech space so they can get back to driving our continent forward.”
The $1 million investment in Okra marks TLcom’s first investment in the fintech sector and as part of the deal, Andreata Muforo, partner at TLcom, will join Okra’s board. Ido Sum, also a partner at the VC firm, will join as a board observer.
Muforo added: “We are always looking for startups with the potential for high value-generation and Okra’s technology provides the foundation for new fintech solutions in Africa for years to come. Equally, it was important for us to know that their leadership had the entrepreneur-led focus which is crucial for execution. Fara’s background was vital here – she’s an expert in over 20 programming languages, worked with multiple Fortune 500 companies and is a great example of why we’re committed to investing in more female founders. She leads by example and we have seen her and David build a really exciting business, in a little under a year, we’re excited to help them grow further”.
TLcom Capital is a sub-Saharan Africa focused tech VC, with offices in Lagos, Nairobi and London. TLcom’s TIDE Africa Fund invests in tech-enabled companies tackling some of Africa’s most pressing challenges across various verticals such as financial services, e-commerce, health, education, energy and software solutions for corporates and SMEs. TLcom manages total commitments of approximately $300 million.
Reach Africa’s private equity community by publishing a Showcase Article on Africa Private Equity News. Contact us at editor@africaprivateequitynews.com for our rate card and more information.