Decode Fintech

Issue 147

Sep 05 - Sep 11, 2022

Hi there,

This newsletter was written while listening to and enjoying Mr. Money with the Vibe - Asake’s full-length debut album. Firstly, “Mr. Money with the Vibe” is a pretty cool way to describe someone who works in fintech, and that is how I plan to explain my job to confused relatives going forward.

Seriously though, Asake’s sound is truly fascinating. It’s familiar in some ways, yet seems to defy category. It’s neo-Fuji. It’s Afro-folk. It’s street opera. One minute, it’s Agbero in Street Sharp and the next it’s Adagio in D Minor. On songs like Joha and Organise we get these audacious and kinetic beats but then on songs like Nzaza and Ototo, the production is slowed down with masterful restraint to tell a rich and genuine story.

All of this is to say that I will be spending the next few weeks dancing terrible legwork to this near-peerless work of operatic street pop. I invite you to do the same.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Tochukwu Ironsi

Market Intelligence Specialist, Paystack

Payments

Nigeria

HabariPay records N447.8 million operating income in H1 2022. HabariPay, which is the financial services subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Holding Co Plc, has reported an operating income of N447.8 million ( ~ $1 million) in the first half of 2022. This follows the CBN approval of their payments license in June and the launch of Squad - a merchant payments solution - in July 2022. Nairametrics

EDITOR'S NOTE

In Issue 134, we explored GTCO's payment motivations and the opportunity that HabariPay/Squad is trying to capture.

Nigeria

CreditCare partners with MoneyGram to launch in Nigeria. CreditCare, a US-based provider of credit and remittance services, has partnered with leading remittance provider MoneyGram, to expand into Nigeria. CreditCare will leverage MoneyGram's infrastructure and existing relationship with Nigerian partner banks to offer its financial solutions. PYMNTS

Conversations

Global

Fintech Foundations. Angela Strange and Marc Andrusko, partners at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), outline key factors and considerations for building a successful fintech infrastructure company targeted at other businesses. a16z

Regulation

Nigeria

Kippa obtains a Super-Agent license from the CBN. The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted Kippa, a provider of financial management tools and payment solutions for SMEs, a Super-Agent license. The license will enable Kippa businesses to act as banking agents and provide financial services like deposits, withdrawals, and bill payments to their customers. Guardian Nigeria

EDITOR'S NOTE

Here’s a link to the CBN’s regulatory framework for licensing super-agents in Nigeria.

Fundraising

Kenya

NowNow closes $13 million seed round. Nigeria's NowNow, which offers agency banking and consumer payments, has raised $13 million in seed funding. The round was led by NeoVision Ventures and will be used to scale the team and launch new products. Techpoint

Africa

60 startups receive $4 million from Google's Black Founders Fund. The current cohort of recipients includes fintechs such as Awabah, Hervest, and FlexPay. Each startup will receive between $50k - $100k in non-dilutive capital and also $200k in Google Cloud credits. Disrupt Africa

EDITOR'S NOTE

In Issue 95, we wrote about the benefits for both the funded startups and Google itself: “Cloud computing comes with relatively low marginal costs and high switching costs. By offering both capital and cloud access, Google recognizes that these startups need money to scale but also will find it hard to switch providers once that scale is reached.”

Nigeria

Bitmama raises $1.65 million in additional pre-seed funding Bitmama, a blockchain payments startup with a presence in Africa and the United States, has raised $1.65 million in additional seed funding. This brings the crypto startup’s total seed funding to $2 million. The new round includes investors like Tekedia Capital and GreenHouse Capital and will be used for product and market expansion. TechCabal

Share a tip

Do you have an announcement, event, or job posting you'd like to share, or have you come across an interesting bit of African fintech news recently? Hit reply and let me know! I might be able to include it in next week's newsletter.