TechPression

Tag: Nigeria’s fintech

  • Nigeria’s fintech startup Storspay secures $320,000 in funding

    Nigeria’s fintech startup Storspay secures $320,000 in funding

    Storspay, a Nigerian finance firm, has funded $320,000 and has been accepted into the Techstars NYC accelerator programme. The new startup has created a decentralised retail lending infrastructure solution for the Internet.

    The platform’s goal is to link small businesses all around the world with individual investors interested in investing in alternative assets. This will benefit business owners who want to expand yet need less money to do so.

    Furthermore, Storspay’s platform enables small businesses to pay for working capital and inventory in a timely and secure manner by exchanging money across borders.

    The purpose of the new organisation is to improve the financial health of business owners all around the world by implementing a decentralised loan system via the Internet.

    While inflation in North America continues to eat away at people’s savings, small business owners in developing economies struggle on a daily basis to find the capital they need at affordable rates to expand their operations.

    Storspay Benefits from the Programme

    JP Morgan Accelerator supports Techtar’s NYC accelerator course, which is a 13-week fundraising and mentoring programme. The goal of the programme is to help startups that want to grow faster get their next round of funding. Also, this is part of the $320,000 round of funding that will help the company grow its platform.

    Storpay thinks it can have a big economic and social effect by building a decentralised retail lending platform that uses stablecoin to spread prosperity around the world. People from one part of the world will be able to help people from another part of the world and make more money at the same time through the tool.

    In his response, the company’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Sam Alonge, restates the company’s goal. “Our goal is to help people around the world improve their income situation.

    We at Storspay think that by building a decentralised retail loan platform that uses stablecoin to spread the wealth around the world, we can have a huge economic and social impact. We will make it possible for regular people on one side of the world to help regular people on the other side of the world and make more money doing it.”

    Storspay wants to shake up the standard lending market and give small businesses a new way to get affordable capital.

    The decentralised structure of the platform will also give borrowers and lenders more security and clarity.

    About Storspay 

    Nigerian FinTech Storspay is constructing internet-based decentralised retail lending infrastructure. Our stablecoin Aan PIs streamline retail investor lending to small enterprises worldwide.

    North American retail investors can lend to participating merchants worldwide using a debit or credit card and their phone.

    They provide a 3x savings account yield. By staking their balances to be lent at low rates to network merchants, users can earn better interest than their bank.

    By implementing new paradigms, such as borderless instant lending, zero fees, community-driven higher interest income on user staking, and lower rates on merchant borrowing, we are developing a new way for businesses and retail investors to exchange capital that puts them at the centre of the transaction and eliminates the frictions of the current system.

    Storspay, backed by Techstars and J.P. Morgan, is building Stripe for cross-border retail lending to small businesses worldwide.

     

  • Mobility startup, Moove, lays off staff after raising $140 million

    Mobility startup, Moove, lays off staff after raising $140 million

    Mobility fintech startup Moove, which was started in Nigeria, is said to have let go of an unknown number of employees in all places where it does business. A person who knows about the situation says that the layoff happened in the first few days of November at the company’s offices in Nigeria.

    In response to this, an official statement from Moove denies this claim, saying the layoffs are “due to issues related to performance as well as gross misconduct.”

    “With regard to those employees dismissed for gross misconduct, it is important to highlight that such policy violations and gross misconduct can have serious consequences on the livelihoods of Moove customers and should not be taken lightly; as such, we enforce a zero-tolerance approach to gross misconduct and remain firmly committed to adhering to this policy across all business areas,” the statement reads.

    Techpoint Africa learned that the business gave affected employees three months of their base pay as severance. Moove affirms that this was solely done as a goodwill gesture.

    But the affected employees had to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and waivers saying they wouldn’t sue in the future. This is part of the employment contract, which Moove says is typical of employment contracts in general.

    Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi started Moove in 2019. It helps entrepreneurs in the car-hailing, ride-hailing, and bus-hailing industries get financing for their vehicles based on how much money they make from them.

    Read also: Moove secures £15 million in funding to expand operations in the UK

    Moove Engagements

    The business serves as Uber’s exclusive funding and supply source for vehicles in sub-Saharan Africa. It has alliances with logistics start-ups like Lori and Kobo 360 as well as automakers, including IVM, Suzuki, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai.

    Until now, Moove has undertaken various challenging tasks. Moove expanded to seven more markets six months ago, including Egypt, the UAE, Egypt, and the UK. To help its customers in the UK switch to EVs, it just released Moove Charge, an app for ride-hailing drivers that helps them connect to a network of charging stations for EVs.

    The firm employs more than 400 people and operates in more than 10 markets worldwide, including six in Africa. With the most recent capital coming in the form of a €15 million loan from Emso Asset Management in October, Moove has raised over $140 million in debt financing and equity in just 2022.

    It seems like Moove’s quick expansion is having an adverse effect on its financial situation. According to the source, Moove’s CEO had warned the company in an email prior to the layoffs that it was spending too much money and would have to make some serious decisions soon.

    This is not true, according to the company’s official statement that the startup is still hiring in all of its international offices and that the exits do not accurately show the company’s financial health.

    “Internal communications across the company have been focused on sharing the company’s vision and encouraging employees to think like owners regarding spending and cost management. This includes the CEOs explaining the business’ growth stage, and the market environment and encouraging the team to make decisions with prudence and care.

    It is uncertain how many personnel were affected or how their effects are affecting the business’s operations. But it’s unlikely that the business will escape the effects of layoffs.

    In developing countries, particularly in regions with a low per capita income, like Africa, the automobile financing industry can be rather difficult. Startups in this market have to deal with the risk of default, a lack of data to measure creditworthiness, problems getting and keeping customers, and competition from lenders who are not regulated. They often have to charge very high-interest rates and borrow a lot of money to stay in business.

    This explains Moove’s choice to target drivers in the ride-hailing industry, a move that will largely assure repayment because it will use a portion of the weekly revenue made on the platform the drivers use. However, because the loan term associated with vehicle finance is between two and five years, scaling up operations and achieving profitability can take some time.

    Fintech for African Mobility, Moove and Uber UK join forces in London

    About Moove

    Moove is a global mobility fintech company that started in Africa. It helps entrepreneurs in ride-hailing, logistics, mass transit, and instant delivery platforms get vehicle financing and other financial services based on how much money they make.

  • Fidelity Bank showcases financing opportunities for Nigeria’s fintech

    Fidelity Bank showcases financing opportunities for Nigeria’s fintech

    Fidelity Bank showcases ways to position Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem to attract external financing and partnership opportunities. Nigerian fintech companies can grow in amazing ways by going global and getting money from outside the country. Both of these channels have been very important in putting the fintech industry at the top of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem from an investor’s point of view.

    Nigeria’s booming fintech sector raised more than $600 million between 2014 and 2019, making up 25% ($122 million) of the $491.6 million raised by African digital companies in 2019 alone. Some of the biggest winners of this capital were OPay, which got $400 million in Series C funding, Flutterwave, which got $170 million in a Series C round, and Chipper Cash, which got $250 million.

    Fintech also has trouble getting money, which makes it hard to spread investment deals. Although investment in fintech firms has increased in Nigeria over the past seven years, challenges, including shifting exchange rates and murky regulatory and legal frameworks, sometimes deter investors from supporting startups in the industry.

    Despite this, the fintech industry is still expanding, and investor interest is still high. Fintech needs to focus even more on making great products, creating an environment that attracts investors, and positioning the company for partnerships and acquisitions.

    Read also: Kenya’s Central Bank Offers 50% waiver to Mobile Borrowers

    The Out Come Of Fidelity International Trade

    At the Fidelity International Trade & Creative Connect, one of the fintech panel talks was about how African fintech could make the most of the potential of intercontinental expansion to grow the ecosystem. Adedoyin Odunfa, MD/CEO of Digital Jewels Africa; Ben Champion, CEO of Nanumo; Sukhi Srivatsan, Head of Sales and Business Development at AZA Finance; Edidiong Uwemakpan, Group Head, Marketing and Communications at TeamApt, and Ovie Esiekpe, VP of Growth at VertoFX, were among the fintech experts who spoke during the session.

    One key conclusion from the discussion was that fintech companies shouldn’t undervalue the ability of alliances and expansions to help them broaden their reach and diversify their risk. According to the CEO of Nanumo, “the greatest opportunity lies within collaboration.”

    Fidelity Bank Showcases the Best of Nigerian Non-Oil Exports at FITCC

    On November 22, 2022, Fidelity Bank Plc held the first edition of its international trade expo in the UK city of London. It has been called the largest trade show put on by Nigerian businesses in the UK in recent years and a big step toward increasing Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.

    The Fidelity International Trade and Creative Connect (FITCC) expo was held at the Novotel West in Hammersmith, London, UK, on November 15 and 16, 2022. It had a number of activities that were meant to help Nigerian businesses get more partnership, financing, product offtake, and investment opportunities in the UK and Europe.

    The UK government’s Minister of State for Development and Africa, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Commonwealth Office, and Development, Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, gave the keynote speech. He thanked Fidelity Bank for putting on the conference and said, “The UK is a natural market for Nigeria because we both speak English and are in the same time zone. Nigeria’s economic potential is a great fit for many UK businesses and investors.” 

    So, I’d like to thank Fidelity Bank for collaborating with the UK to strengthen our commercial ties. Trade and investment have been a major focus for our governments in recent years. Through our “Developing Markets Trading Scheme,” Nigeria has better access to the UK market.

    Top 10 South African Tech Startups To Pay Attention To in 2022 And Beyond

    About Fidelity Bank

    Nigeria’s Fidelity Bank is a full-service commercial bank with 250 branches and online banking for more than 7 million customers. The Global Banking & Finance Awards just named the bank Nigeria’s Best SME Bank 2022. The bank also won the “Fastest Growing Bank” and “MSME and Entrepreneurship Financing Bank of the Year” awards at the 2021 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.