ImaliPay, a fintech firm that brands itself as a one-stop-shop financial services platform, has raised $3 million in a loan and equity round. In 2020, the fintech secured an $800,000 pre-seed investment.
It was founded by Tatenda Furusa and Oluwasanmi Akinmusire in late 2020 after Furusa witnessed the difficulties ride-hailing drivers had in obtaining working funds or dealing with situations such as running out of fuel in Nairobi.
ImaliPay’s pilot was inspired by Furusa’s experience: a buy now, pay later (BNPL) petrol product for two-wheeler gig platforms, with the firm partnering with a few petrol stations in Ibadan, Nigeria, to provide this service to SafeBoda riders.
The business then went on to build a partner ecosystem in which some partners provide access to new consumers while others maintain the ecosystem and marketplace.
Also read, ImaliPay deploys Technology to improve the Financial Health of African Gig Workers
According to Furusa, ImaliPay expanded its offerings to include spare parts, smartphones, power banks, savings and investments, and insurance combined with those products.
As with accident insurance and income protection loss insurance, the business has woven these products together so that gig workers can qualify for each depending on their transactional activity.
The first is mainly the fault of the gig platforms. Bolt, Glovo, SWVL, Amitruck, Safeboda, Gokada, and Max.ng are among the 15 partners in this category.
Vendors who work with fuel, spare parts, mobile phones, and other products needed by gig workers make up the difference.
ImaliPay has worked with platforms in Kenya and South Africa to offer extra financial services such as health and income protection loss insurance and savings, as well as working with various gig platforms.
Lami, Cowrywise, Ola Energy, Total Energies, HiFi Corporation, and Britam are among the 35 companies represented. It connects its APIs to partner companies or provides these financial services directly to gig workers on this platform through an independent app, chatbot, or USSD.
ImaliPay’s customer base has increased by 60 times in just 15 months. These “tens of thousands” of gig workers use the startup’s services through 4,500 vendor points, according to the corporation.
On ImaliPay’s platform, over 200,000 transactions have been completed. Transaction and referral fees are how the pan-African integrated financing provider makes money.
Before founding ImaliPay, COO Akinmusire and Furusa met while working at Cellulant. They got money from the Google Black Founders Fund in October of last year before closing this seed round, which included Leonnis Investments.
Ten 13, Uncovered Fund, MyAsia VC, Jedar Capital, Logos Ventures, Plug N Play Ventures, Untapped Global, Latam Ventures, Cliff Angels, Chandaria Capital, and Changecom were among the follow-on investors in the round. Keisuke Honda of KSK Angels, as well as other angel investors from Serbia, Kenya, and Norway, took part.
The funds will be used to grow the company’s 50-person workforce, improve its technology, and extend into other areas such as Ghana and Egypt, according to the founders.
Techbuild’s Take
Africa is experiencing rapid expansion in the gig economy. Despite this expansion, the standing position of workers who are considered contractors rather than employees has remained unchanged.
Being a contractor is unfavorable for many of them, especially in the two-wheeler industry, because they lack access to some financial services.
Some gig platforms have attempted to incorporate financial services onto their platforms, however, their capabilities are constrained.
However, many fintech is offering a larger range of financial services to these gig workers, who are estimated to number over 80 million by 2030, according to the Mastercard Foundation. ImaliPay is a good illustration of this.
Gig platforms have the ability to provide a constant supply of work in Africa, as well as a means to decrease informality and enhance productivity by overtaking informal economies with centralized control and assistance.
The benefit of gig platforms is that they connect jobs with skills. For job hunters, this is a very useful feature. Job searchers can learn which talents are relevant in today’s society by searching for opportunities on platforms.
As more people seek financial independence, they will do everything in their power to upskill and reskill in order to meet the job’s criteria.
As a result, people on the gig platform require financial assistance. These gig platforms offer solutions to gig economy employees, freelancers, and self-employed digital workers in Africa.
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