AFRICA – African money movement platform Zazuu has completed a US$2 million fundraising round that will allow it to build a more robust remittance offering for residents living in the diaspora.
The fundraising round saw participation from Launch Africa, Founders Factory Africa, HoaQ, Tinie Tempah, Jason Njoku, Babs Ogundeyi, and other angel investors.
According to Zazuu Chief Operating Officer Korede Fanilola, the startup will use the money to scale its platform and improve its product, adding new features that ensure everyone sending money to Africa gets the best money transfer experience.
He added that the company is looking to grow and spread their services to other countries in Europe. “The plan for us is growth. We want to scale our solution as quickly as possible. We’re working on getting licenses that allow us to offer our service to users in other European countries before the end of the year,” he said.
Zazuu has since 2020 been providing Africans in the diaspora information about ways to send money to the continent. The company has grown from a simple Facebook and Telegram chatbot informing users of daily rates to an FCA-licensed organisation in the UK, with users in 8 countries.
“The mission has always been simple for us from day one. Africans have consistently gotten the shorter end of the stick with remittance transactions. We discovered that the primary reason for that was a lack of transparency on the part of the providers,” Kay Akinwunmi, CEO of Zazuu, said.
“We’re solving that problem by building a smarter way to transfer money. With Zazuu, users can search multiple money transfer providers in their region, compare the rates and fees, and then choose who to send money with, at no extra cost.”
According to Akinwunmi, this raise will help the company build a better financial ecosystem for Africans in the diaspora.
“That means, more than just helping people complete transactions, we want to better help them with better access to financial instruments like credit both home and abroad in the future. The aim is to build a completely non-biased financial well-being for African immigrants across the world,” he added.
Meanwhile, Nigeria-based FinTech Moni is trying to fill the funding gap for small business owners in Africa with a community-based lending solution.
Nigerian fintech startup Moni is a community-powered digital finance platform for African SMEs and consumers that leverages the concepts of social trust and group responsibility in order to offer a range of financial services to those who otherwise would not be able to access them.
Liked this article? Subscribe to DealStreet Africa News, our regular email newsletter with the latest news, deals, and insights from Africa’s business, economy, and more. SUBSCRIBE HERE
