Over the past several months, platforms offering banking as a service (BaaS) have increased in popularity across the fintech industry. These platforms enable organizations, from startups and fintechs to large enterprises and banks, to offer their consumers specialized banking services and experiences through partnerships with banks.
Fintechs providing BaaS services in the US and Europe, like Unit, Rapyd, and Treasury Prime, have grown significantly as a result of the advanced banking infrastructures in those regions. However, in less developed banking systems, such as those in Africa, where the demand and scalability of such products are unknown, their equivalents are attempting to emulate the similar rise
The newest event is the $6 million seed capital raised by Maplerad, a fintech defined by its founders Miracle Anyanwu and Obinna Chukwujioke as a global BaaS provider focusing on Africa. Sources claim that the newly emerged American company Maplerad raised the financing at a $30 million valuation. The founders opted against commenting.
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Maplerad new funding
The founders of Maplerad introduced Wirepay as the company’s first product in 2020, beginning Maplerad’s corporate history. The app’s initial goal was to facilitate cross-border payments for users by providing fiat and cryptocurrency cross-border payment options. But over time, it evolved into what it calls an “all-in-one finance platform,” allowing users to pay bills, create virtual and physical cards, and receive, retain, and make payments in a variety of currencies.
A $125,000 payment from OnDeck was part of an unannounced pre-seed funding round for Wirepay last year. Other investors in the round included Berrywood Capital, Greenhouse Capital, some executives from Stash, and Golden Palm Investments Corporation.
Anyanwu noted in a teleconference with TechCrunch that when Wirepay reached over 50,000 customers, mostly in Nigeria, companies started to ask about the internal architecture powering the features on its consumer app. The CEO and CTO said, “People wanted to use the infrastructure enabling Wirepay, our license coverages, and banking relationships.”
Anyanwu added that the parent company, Maplerad, had always wished to spin off this infrastructure for use by other companies. They finally decided to beta-launch Maplerad, the infrastructure product that enables businesses to embed potent financial features like accounts, payments, FX, and cards into their products this August, however, as a result of the avalanche of outside requests.
“Even though we didn’t start the business infrastructure first, we knew from the beginning when we built Wirepay for our customers that the final move would be infrastructural. The banking stack is a huge starting point for anyone building anything related to finance, and even before integrating features, there are many obstacles to overcome, according to the chief executive. “Banking relationships and compliance are two of them. A second is licensing. For these companies in Africa, Maplerad is resolving issues with the financial infrastructure. We manage the entire stack and offer the top-notch APIs you need to build a financial product in under five minutes. You can interface with our APIs and go live instead of a company investing 8 months and a few million dollars in developing a fintech solution.
Startup banking as a service offering
Because major, established banks have been rather sluggish in updating their services to keep up with the rate of change in the banking and technology industries, banking-as-a-service platforms have grown in popularity with businesses looking to integrate financial services into their products. As a result, platforms offering banking as a service perceive an opportunity to offer more individualized services and flexibility for less money. The competition is fierce; some of Maplerad’s rivals in Nigeria are YC-backed Anchor, Bloc, OnePipe, and more substantial fintechs like Flutterwave.
When questioned about the startup’s competitive advantage in an interview with TechCrunch in August, Anchor CEO cited his founding team’s technological expertise, attention to security and scalability, and the speed at which businesses can go live on its platform.
When asked a similar question, the Maplerad founders cited the platform’s “wider range of banking relationships,” “a tech second to none,” and having the “best institutional investors/partners.” James Fitzgerald, a partner at Valar Ventures, also commented on the investment, saying, “there’s a huge opportunity for Maplerad, which is the best-in-class banking as a service platform.”
After Yellow Card and Kuda, the Peter Thiel-founded venture capital firm led Maplerad’s seed round. Michael Vaughn, who was formerly the COO of Venmo, Fintech Fund, Babs Ogundeyi, the CEO of Kuda, Armyn Capital, Dunbar Capital, Strawhat Investment, Polymath Capital, Unpopular Ventures, Sean Mahsoul, and MyAsiaVC are among the additional investors in the round. The company’s founders said they also contributed financial resources.
Over 100 companies were added to Maplerad’s platform while it was still in stealth, processing millions of dollars each month for startups like Pastel, Spleet, Bridgecard, Onboardly, Vella, Crowdforce, Dojah, GetEquity, and a few banks. Now that it is out of the shadows, it intends to use the funding to increase client acquisition, obtain new licenses, expand its staff, and firmly establish its position across Africa.
About Maplerad
Maplerad is an architecture for banking-as-a-service that gives you the ability to incorporate highly effective financial services into your offering. We will take care of all compliance, bank relationship management, and licensing requirements so that you can concentrate on innovating.
The company that produces Maplerad is called Maplerad Technologies Inc. Maplerad and its clients are not banks but rather enterprises that provide financial technology services. Our partner banks, all of which hold valid licenses issued by the CBN, are the ones who are responsible for providing banking services.
