Ivory Coast fintech startup Bizao has raised $8.2 million in its Series A funding to further operation in expanding commercialization to more African markets.
About Bizao
Bizao was founded in 2019 by Aurelien Delort-Duval and it focused on facilitating end-to-end payments to digital payment systems in Africa. The company due to its modular and scalable platform provides users with the ability to collect and issue payments online and in-store through point-of-sale (POS).
Since the inception of the startup in 2019, the startup has advanced its operations to over 9 African counties mostly those in Francophone Africa while building a robust infrastructure that processes over 350 million payment requests per month.
The company is also in collaboration with over 30 telco operators, mobile money service providers, and banks.
With the recent Series A funding from various investors such as AfricInvest, Seedstars Africa Ventures, and Adelie; the company hopes to scale the commercialization of its payment hub and advance its expansionist operations to more countries.
What The New Funding Will Do For Bizao
In a statement, the CEO of Bizao, Aurelien Delort-Duval, said:
“We have spent the last few years working closely with our partners to improve our products and services in line with our customer requirements. Thanks to this close collaboration with industry players, we have multiplied the transaction volumes processed by our platform by almost 20 over the past 12 months.
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This round of financing will enable us to design new product lines for high-potential vertically integrated organizations, expand in new markets and grow the team across all our offices”.
Also, the partner at AfricInvest, Omar Bekkali, said:
“Through our equity investments in financial institutions including banks, insurance companies, and high potential fintech, we support the acceleration of universal access to financial services. Our investment in Bizao is in line with this high-impact strategy aiming to support financial inclusion in Africa”.
Importance of Funding To Startups in Africa
When a startup is created to get funds to commence and expand its operations is a very uphill task as most investors are skeptical when it comes to investing in Africa. Funding in the life of a startup is very important as it can help to unlock new opportunities, A startup isn’t built of sweat and blood as even Steve Jobs had to sell his Volkswagen car to fund the creation of Apple.
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Funding can help entrepreneurs with the guidance and support they would need to become successful in their chosen industry, Let’s look at some of the benefits of funding to startups In Africa:
1) Commence the business:
Funding can help to kickstart your business and can help transform a person from an employee to an entrepreneur through monetary support.
Funding can also help in turning an entrepreneur’s concept or idea into a startup.
2) Get hiring support:
Funding can help you employ the best hands that would be needed to operate a successful startup and also help you pay the employees’ salaries till the startup starts making profits.
With the availability of funds, you can hire professionals to work for your startup hence producing great results but those startups without funding find it difficult to find professionals who will work for them due to their unavailability of funds.
3) Aids the operational side of the business:
For startups lacking funds getting a place and equipment to commence operations can be a very uphill task for them and without having these resources, the startup won’t thrive and eventually fold up. Startups that have access to funding can purchase resources that will sustain the business for its first few years before it fends for itself with the proceedings generated.
4) Helps in promoting the startup:
To increase the revenue of a business there is a need for the promotion/advertising campaign to be top-notch, this means that the startup needs to be known through various means commonly Television and Radio.
Advertising helps to get your customers in a market quickly where several seasoned players already exist.
5) Offers guidance to entrepreneurs:
When investors provide funding for a business, they don’t just invest their money without guiding the owners of these startups on how to be successful in the market. They wouldn’t want their money to be a waste so they would guide top professionals on how to use the funding wisely.
6) Move businesses from local to global:
The one thing that moves a business from a national level to one that is international requires funds, all startups have dreams to expand to the global front but most of them don’t expand due to lack of funds. When startups encounter the right investors, they will give monetary support and guidance on how to expand their operations globally.
7) Makes a startup have a competitive edge:
If you have been following this article carefully, you would notice that the benefits of funding are far more than money and can help those new startups have a competitive edge in the market and place them in the same shoes as top brands.
Since the investors provide them guidance, they can help and guide them on the processes to follow if they are to compete with top brands in the market.
8) It can help the startup to grow:
When startups are provided with funding it will help them to grow beyond their expectations. As I said before if blood and sweat are not backed up by funds, the startup will not thrive but remain at a local level.
9) Provide credibility to the startup:
Once funding is added to a startup by an investor, it will make them credible to the populace because they believe that for an investor to put his funds in that startup it means that they are reliable and trustworthy.
When a startup has credibility, it will help them to:
i) Get more customers;
ii) Have better loan rates;
iii) Get more investors
Fintech is the new normal in the banking sector and companies like Bizao, Bloom, Palmpay, Etc. are expected to be provided with the required funds to advance to more countries hence introducing them to mobile banking and freeing them from the evils of traditional banks.
