Dash Raises $32.8M in Seed Funding
Ghana-based fintech Dash, has announced that it has raised $32.8 million in an oversubscribed seed round. The round, which comes after a $500,000 pre-seed, continues a list of fintech deals amid a wave of innovation rippling through the sector, which accounted for up to 60% of Africa’s total VC funding last year.
The seed round was led by New York-based private equity and venture capital fund Insight Partners. The seed round is also one of the largest of its kind in Africa; only PalmPay’s $40 million tops it at the moment.
Other investors in the round include Global Founders Capital, 4DX Ventures, ASK Capital, Techstars, Guillaume Pousaz’s Zinal Growth Partners, Jitendra Gupta of Jupiter Money, Amrish Rau of Pine Labs, the founders of Moss, executives from ProcessOut and the founders of PennyLane.
Dash was founded in 2019 by CEO, Prince Boakye Boampong. The startup focused on building a unified, modern, and accessible alternative payment network for African consumers and businesses.
Founder and CEO Prince Boakye Boampong spoke and Dash’s efficiency and how the startup is unifying the banking space in Africa.
“I was blown away by the ubiquity and convenience of mobile money in 2014 when I visited Kenya for the first time. However, there are over 200 mobile money wallets and 100 banks across the continent that [do] not work with each other.
“We’re building this interoperability so a Kenyan traveling to Ghana or Ghanaian travelling to Kenya would be able to pay for stuff without having to change currencies or setting up accounts when they touch ground. We’re taking a page from AliPay and PayTm by building features that will make the lives of our users easier without having to switch from different providers,” said Boampong.
In January, Dash claimed to have processed over $300 million in TPV, up 300% monthly from Q4 2021. This growth in service might have been what has attracted more investors to the startup. Dash also claims it has processed over $1 billion from a million consumers within Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria since its start in 2020.
“For most products, it’s either you are figuring stuff out, or you figured it out. We were kind of caught off guard with the crazy growth in a very weird way. We didn’t prepare for the growth, so when it happened, we raised more money to meet that demand and we believe it can only get better,” said Boampong.
The funding will help Dash expand to new markets such as Tanzania and South Africa, get the licenses needed to operate there, build out its team, invest in technology and launch new features.