SA fintech startup, Floatpays raises $4m seed funding round, plans African expansion
Floatpays, a South African fintech startup has secured $4 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round to boost its expansion into the rest of African countries.
Founded in 2019 by Simon Ward, Floatpays is a technology platform that enables on-demand access to pay, seamless savings functionality and financial literacy to build employee financial wellness.The start-up was one of the participants in the S21 cohort of the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator in 2021.
Despite the challenges orchestrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Floatpays says it achieved 43% growth of its employer base and 70% user growth, noting that the funding is a crucial foundation for the next phase of its growth.
According to the start-up, several venture capitalists and angel investors that share in the vision of creating financial wellness and financial resilience joined the seed round. Among the investors are Global Founders Capital, Base Capital,Finca Ventures, Raba Partnership and 4DX Ventures, as well as angel investors, Alan Rutledge, Shaun Hurwitz, YoucefOudjidaneand Olugbenga Agboola, the co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave.
The new investors join existing backers Founders Factory Africa, Kepple Africa Ventures, Norrsken Foundation and MFS Investments, the startup noted.
“The investment allows us to consolidate our position in South Africa and expand into the rest of Africa. We are accelerating the development of important features that complement our existing product, such as our new interest-bearing savings account that is directly linked to employees’ paychecks,” Simon Ward, Founder of Floatpays said.
“We are witnessing the potential technology has in offering fair and transparent financial services products. Floatpays is a leader in the earned wage space and on their way to building the leading trusted brand across the continent,” says George Rzepecki, founder of Raba.
“We are excited to partner with Simon and team in supporting Floatpay’s mission in becoming the financial services platform of choice for Africa’s large and growing workforce.”
Ward said that Floatpays was established as a “small company with big dreams to create a financially inclusive Africa”.
“I launched Floatpays as a social impact-driven business on a mission to help move employees out of bad debt cycles and into savings and long term financial wellness. Our mission is to educate employees on better personal finance management, support them with financial planning and saving, and give them an alternative to payday lenders or high-interest credit solutions when mid-pay cycle liquidity becomes a problem,” he said.