By Emma Okonji
Appzone, a Pan-African fintech software provider has announced the close of its $10 million Series A round.
Led by CardinalStone Capital Advisers with participation from V8 Capital, Lateral Investment Partners, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures, the new funding will bolster investment in Appzone’s core technologies and kick off a wave of new country expansions in a drive to build out a financial operating system intended to completely digitise and automate the delivery of financial services on the continent.
Launched in 2008, Appzone delivers best-in-class products for digital core banking and interbank transaction processing with clients across seven African countries including high-profile names like Access Bank, GT Bank and Zenith Bank. Since its inception, the company, also an alumnus of the Google launchpad accelerator, has led Africa’s fintech sector through radical innovation that resulted in a number of global firsts from the continent, including the world’s first decentralised payment processing network, the first core banking and omni-channel software on the cloud and the first multi-bank direct debit service based on single global mandates. To date, the company’s platforms have served 18 commercial banks and over 450 microfinance banks, amassing a yearly transaction value and yearly loan disbursement of $2 billion and $300 million respectively.
As Africa’s traditional banks and fintech startups grapple with the increasing threat from telco companies and big tech players, Appzone’s products effectively and affordably equip them to deal with the sector’s most pressing challenges including legacy cost structures and a major lack of operational efficiency.
Speaking on the fundraise, Appzone’s Co-Founder and CEO Obi Emetarom said: “We are excited not only to be securing a significant capital raise, but also welcoming on board some strategic investors whose support will be key to our growth journey.
“The news allows us to scale Appzone’s products and services rapidly. For the last 12 years, we have worked in stealth mode, building the really complex infrastructure to power the continent’s growing digital financial services space and forging partnerships with the continent’s biggest financial institutions.
“In terms of next steps, we are now looking to hire from Africa’s top 1 per cent to grow our team of elite talent who have proven themselves to be true African builders; the brightest senior software engineers and domain experts, doing the incredibly hard work of building the backbone and next generation infrastructure for digital financial services at a level beyond world-class.”
