Bizao Raises $8.1M Series A to Scale its Payments Platform across Africa
Bizao, an African fintech firm that facilitates payments for both domestic and international businesses operating in Africa, has raised $8.1 million in series A funding to expand its offering across the continent and invest in the development of new products and service lines.
The investment round was led by AfricInvest Financial Inclusion Vehicle (AfricInvest FIVE), a leading private equity firm with operations in Africa, with participation from Adelie VC, a multi-stage venture capital fund focused on technology companies, and Seedstars Africa Ventures, an Africa-focused early-stage venture capital fund.
Founded in 2019 by Aurélien Duval-Delort and Natasha DIMBAN, Bizao enables a transparent and secure method of processing end-to-end payment flows to and from Africa’s major digital payment systems (airtime, mobile money wallets, credit cards).
Since its inception, the fintech has expanded into ten African countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Tunisia, Togo, and Gabon, and has collaborated with over 30 telco operators, banks, and mobile money service providers. Because of this geographic coverage, Bizao’s team has been able to create a one-of-a-kind payment hub that allows businesses in West and Central Africa to accept credit card payments as well as mobile money and airtime. Bizao, which now serves 200 million end users, is already assisting around 100 businesses in the digital transformation of their online and in-store payment transactions.
The fintect’s modular and scalable platform of fintech allows clients to collect and issue payments both online and in-store via point-of-sale (POS). It now processes over 350 million payment requests per month.
Also, its technology ensures end-to-end transactions traceability and is up to the latest standards of banking and finance regulation to prevent fraud and money laundering. This, ultimately, enables Bizao to deepen its relationship with its partners.
Aurélien Delort-Duval
Commenting on the round, Aurélien Delort-Duval, Founder and CEO of Bizao hinted at using the new funds to design new product lines for high-potential vertically integrated organizations, as well as expanding in new markets and growing its team.
“We have spent the last few years working closely with our partners (telecoms operators, banks, and mobile wallet providers) 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. 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.”
What the Investors Said
Omar Bekkali, Partner at AfricInvest on his part said, “Through our equity investments in financial institutions including banks, insurance companies, and high potential fintechs, 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.”
Jean-Manuel Costa, Managing Partner at Adelie said, “It is the future of financial services that is orchestrating itself in Africa; mobile money has enabled more than 60% of the population on the continent to finally have access to basic financial services. The penetration rate of mobile on the continent is close to 100% and we are witnessing a growth in the use of credit cards. We are convinced that a platform combining all these payment methods has exceptional growth potential.”
“With more than 600 million mobile money accounts, Africa is the ultimate place for mobile payments. Yet 90% of transactions are still settled in cash. Bizao tackles a major societal issue, Tamim El Zein, Partner at Seedstars Africa Ventures, observed.