COTE D’IVOIRE – Djamo, a financial super app for consumers in French-speaking Africa, has been accepted into the Silicon Valley-based accelerator Y Combinator, banking US$125,000 funding and further support, becoming the first startup from Ivory Coast to take part in the renowned programme.
Founded by Hassan Bourgi and Regis Bamba last year, Djamo is a financial super app that aims to democratise access to quality and affordable banking to millions of Africans living across the Francophone Africa region.
“Since day one we wanted to design a mobile-first platform that can break into the masses; our combined experience building mass market consumer products is in every inch of Djamo’s app, people love the experience and talk about it to their friends and families, this is why our significant growth is coming organically through word of mouth,” said Bourgi.
Djamo launched its app and Visa card in November 2020, six months after closing a US$350,000 pre-seed investment from early-stage investors. Today, it has around 90,000 registered users and processes over 50,000 transactions monthly.
“We believe that with mobile reach, great technology and design, we can become the go-to solution for people across the region, not only for digital natives but for all people hungry of quality and affordable financial services. Down the line, we want every person in French speaking Africa with a smartphone and internet connection to become a potential customer” said Bourgi.
Nigerian fintech startup Mono had been accepted into the Y Combinator Winter 2021 batch and can now confirm it is joined in that cohort by Djamo. The startup will receive US$125,000 in seed funding as well as further investment opportunities at a March demo day.
In the region, less than 25% of adults have bank accounts, as the focus for banks remains the top 10-20% wealthiest customers. The rest, which is a huge segment of the market of about 120 million people, is not perceived as profitable.
But as banks slacked, mobile money from the region’s telcos filled in the gap. In the last 10 years, their wallets have reached more than 60% of the population — proof of how many millions of French-speaking natives were hungry for financial services.
Today, this mobile money infrastructure and reach allows startups to build upon their existing payment infrastructure to democratize access through different applications.
Djamo is one such company taking advantage of this opportunity to bring affordable and seamless banking to the region.
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