Nigeria-based Fintech Startup, NowNow, Raises $13m in Seed Fund to Scale Operation Across Africa

Nigerian-based fintech startup, NowNow Digital Systems, has raised $13 million in its seed round led by NeoVision Ventures Ltd., DLF Family Office, and Shadi Abdulhadi heralds, which will be used to implement the company’s plans to scale and expand its service offerings across Africa.

NowNow said the fund will be used to improve financial inclusion across Africa by providing financial services to the continent’s unbanked and underbanked.

The CEO & co-founder, NowNow, Sahir Berry, said besides driving financial inclusion across Africa, the new fund will be used to promote financial education as a way of empowering Africans at the last mile.

“With the secured funding, we look to not only provide services that include everyone financially but also upscale our agile ecosystem which ensures that our multidimensional offering remains a market leader.

“The credit facility will also support our unique strategy to advance financial inclusion and independence through financial education. The interest and backing of our investors will enable us to grow our world-class team as we would be unveiling innovative products and services,” he said.

With the newly secured funds, NowNow will drive financial empowerment as well as introduce new products which will further enhance its already existing consumer banking, agency banking, and merchant payment solutions.

The company aims to build the best digital platform for payments in Africa – an aim it is counting on its rapidly growing product suite and highly agile technology platform to achieve.

Having been recognized for its innovation, NowNow was recently selected to participate in the Mastercard Start Path Global programme created to help later-stage startups innovate and scale. The startup said it is now focused on solving everyday financial challenges by creating the largest fintech ecosystem in Africa. In addition to expanding its digital payment platform in Africa, NowNow is making it a goal to promote financial education.

The large number of unbanked and underbanked people in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, shows that there is a wide gap to bridge in the continent when it comes to financial inclusion. The good news is that most of the people who fall under this category are willing to be educated financially.

According to a financial literacy report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), most Nigerians want training and information on financial concepts such as long-term financial planning, budgeting, financial products and services, risk management, the financial security of their dependents, and insurance.

Seeing financial education as part of its business, NowNow recently partnered with the Lagos Business School’s (LBS) Sustainable Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS) to initiate a financial education and literacy program aimed at driving Nigeria’s financial inclusion growth.

The B2B and B2C fintech said it will utilize SIDFS’s rich data, library content, and resources to provide financial and digital literacy tools for its customers to ensure smart financial planning.

Managing partner of Capital V Ltd, Gary Peters, said NowNow has proved its mettle through challenges since it was founded in 2018, and that has captured his company’s investment interest.

“One of the key elements that propelled us to invest in NowNow through one of our funds is based on the founders’ tenacity to grow the company to a viable level, as well as overcoming many challenges and market cycles since its inception in 2018, is its core business and vision of digitizing the African region through facilitating daily payment services is also another important element.

“Whenever we meet a company founder like Sahir Berry, whose leadership’s vision aligns with Capital V’s fund of funds strategy to back disruptive and high-potential start-ups, especially in emerging markets like Africa, the decision process becomes easier,” he said.