Klasha, a startup based in Lagos and San Francisco, has acquired an extra $2.1 million to bring its $4.5 million seed round to a close.
The firm, which offers a variety of cross-border ecommerce products across Africa, received new funding from a group of foreign investors led by American Express (AMEX) Ventures, American Express’ strategic investment arm.
This is AMEX Ventures’ first investment in an African startup. Global Ventures, a MENA-focused VC that has financed Tabby, Paymob, and Helium Health, co-led the deal alongside the business.
“I think the fact that AMEX is now participating in the region, especially after investing in businesses like Stripe,”, Jessica Anuna, Klasha CEO Jessica said, adding that the addition of Global Ventures is also significant for the company.
Greycroft, Plug & Play, Seedcamp, Breega, and Berrywood Capital, among others, doubled down on the company’s initial seed round.
These vendors, according to the corporation, are paid in their preferred currency in three days. Merchants who don’t have physical locations to receive funds can share links with clients through social media or email using Payment Links.
Anuna claims that merchant acquisitions are up 20% month over month, and transaction volume is up 17.5 percent.
Klasha has completed over 210,000 transactions from over 1,700 merchants, which is ten times the number processed last October.
Klasha earns money from marketing expenses and subscriptions that traders pay to use the analytics solution.
Users in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana were able to establish virtual cards, fund them with their local currencies, and send and receive money using Klasha’s consumer product last year.
Anuna stated in an interview that the company would update the app to make it easier for stores like ASOS, Zara, and H&M to accept payments from African customers.
“The most significant product development is this app, which allows these consumers to shop from select stores like Boohoo.com, pay with their Klasha wallet, which can be funded with several African currencies, and have their purchases delivered to their doorstep,” Anuna explained.
“Klasha’s main goal is to make cross-border trade between Africa and the rest of the globe more efficient. As a result, the rest of the world will have access to African consumers who desire and need these items on a worldwide scale.”
Despite Klasha’s excellent development, Sacha Haider, a partner at Global Ventures, believes the company has more room to grow.
According to her, the “huge opportunity” to develop a better experience for over 500 million digital shoppers expected on the continent by 2025, in an e-commerce market that accounts for up to 5% of Africa’s retail area, is highlighted by Klasha.
In a statement, global head of Amex Ventures, Matt Sueoka, stated, “We look forward to seeing the company’s unique solutions help open up commerce for African consumers and enable cross-border payments.”
“Klasha has the ability to stimulate expenditure in emerging markets by making payments easier and allowing retailers to spread throughout the continent and beyond.”
Techbuild’s Take
Klasha, which was founded three years ago and will start in 2021, is tapping into Africa’s cross-border e-commerce business, which is valued at more than $25 billion.
The company is working to resolve payment challenges that African retailers and consumers have when purchasing things online using various payment methods.
Klasha offers a number of business and consumer-facing solutions that are all linked through a single API. KlashaCheckout enables businesses outside of Africa to accept payments from six African nations — Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa— and receive payments in G20 currencies such as pounds, dollars, and euros. Small businesses in these six nations can use KlashaWire to pay their suppliers in their own currencies.
The software, named KlashaCart, would allow consumers to shop from a variety of stores using naira and have their purchases delivered within 7-14 days via Klasha’s logistics arm.
According to Anuna, the site will go live in Kenya in the coming months. Meanwhile, its customer base has increased to almost 45,000, a 4x increase since last October.
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