YC-backed Nigerian fintech Startup, Lemonade Finance raises $725k pre-seed funding

Y Combinator-backed Nigerian Fintech startup Lemonade Finance has raised a $725k pre-seed funding round to help it scale.

The pre-seed round was spearheaded by Y Combinator. Other investors in the round are Microtraction, Ventures Platform, and Acuity Venture Partners. Several individual investors also took part.

Lemonade Finance was cofounded by Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran, the startup allows Africans abroad to send and receive money from their home countries at affordable rates via its app.

Through the app, users can hold their balances in desired currencies, and easily convert one to the other.

The startup’s co-founder, Ridwan Olalere speaking said that the lemonade app is flexible and provides solutions to the issue of international money transfer for Africans.

“Before Lemonade, international money transfers that should take minutes took days. Those are hours of stress and anxiety for you and your family while your money is stuck in transit.

“It also makes it difficult for many Africans abroad, who own businesses, to keep those ventures running. The Lemonade app solves all that, with great rates and instant transfers across borders; it’s a game-changer for the African diaspora,” said Olalere.

Dayo Koleowo, the managing partner at Microtraction, also said:

“As a multi-currency financial service provider, they make it easy for the African diaspora to send and receive money from their new country of residence, which is remarkable. We believe Rian and Ridwan have the technical and financial know-how to provide the number one cross-border neobank for Africans in diaspora,” he said.

Kayode Oyewole, a partner at Ventures Platform, expressed excitement in the partnership while saying that: “Lemonade has built a compelling financial product to serve the more than 100 million African diasporas, who today have limited access to great financial products.

“The founders are rockstars with deep experience building and scaling products to reach millions of users,” he said.