TeamApt, a Lagos-based fintech offering direct consumer and business-facing products for underserved populations, announced an undisclosed Series B led by Novastar Ventures, according to a press release.
The company says it will use the funding to expand its service to beyond Nigeria and extend its offering directly to customers and micro-SMEs. TeamApt’s core agent banking product, Moniepoint, serves 29 million individuals who previously had limited access to financial services.
The service utilizes an agency banking model, offering agents access to mobile applications and PoS terminals that offer cash withdrawals and deposits, fund transfers, airtime purchase and bill payments.
“This fundraise is happening at a significant time in our growth as a company. In the past years, we have exceeded several strategic milestones without external funding, helping accelerate the Central Bank of Nigeria’s target of 95% financial inclusion by 2024, but as the hurdles of financial access are not unique to Nigeria, this funding allows us to extend our solutions to other parts of Africa,” TeamApt co-founder and CEO Tosin Eniolorunda said in the release.
Brian Odhiambo, Novastar Ventures’ Head of West Africa was the lead partner in the funding round, which also included participation from Global Ventures, FMO, CDC Group, Oui Capital, Soma Capital and Kepple Africa Ventures. TeamApt previously raised $5.5 million in a 2019 Series A led by Quantum Capital Partners and an undisclosed funding round in late 2020.
Founded in late 2015 by Eniolorunda and CIO Felix Ike, the company originally optimized core bank back-office operations and charged per-project, according to TechCrunch. By 2017, TeamApt had already managed to process over $160 million transactions per month, without any fundraising or external investments.
TeamApt has now processed more than $17.5 billion worth of transactions in the past 12 months, a 1000% increase over the previous year. The 68 million transactions processed through Moniepoint and its payment gateway Monnify, signals the rapid scaling of its service and disruption in Western Africa’s financial sector.
“Universal access to financial services is key to the advancement of any society. We built Moniepoint because we believe everyone deserves to enjoy financial happiness, and this can only happen when they can access financial services effortlessly,” said Eniolorunda.
TeamApt’s other services include Moneytor, a digital banking service for financial institutions’ web and mobile interfaces, Monnify, a small business management enterprise suite, and AptPay, a push payment infrastructure used on mobile banking applications.
The company plans to use the funding to make key acquisitions, in order to leverage new technology and offline distribution for their goal of expansion into other countries across Africa. TeamApt is already in the process of closing a Series C round to further this goal, Eniolorunda confirmed to TechCrunch.
In other recent fintech news, Robinhood files to go public, with funded accounts growing 150% from Q1 of 2020 to Q1 of 2021. SMB financial data transfer company Codat also announced raising $40 million in a Series B led by Tiger Global.