Nigeria-based API fintech startup, Mono, has raised $2 million in seed investment from Entrée Capital and Gbenga Oyebode’s fund (TCVP) with participation from its existing investor, Lateral Capital, and other local angel investors including Babalola Ogundeyi, CEO of Kuda Bank.
At barely a month old, the startup had secured US$500,000 in pre-seed funding, and earlier in February 2021, it got accepted into Y Combinator, receiving US$125,000 investment. With this latest addition, Mono’s total funding amounts to $2.625 million.
Having originated as a fun project, Mono was launched in August 2020 by Abdul Hassan and Prakhar Singh to improve financial inclusion and connectivity on the African continent.
It does this by organizing various financial data into a single API for companies and third-party developers, allowing them to access information like account statements, real-time balance, historical transactions, income, expense, and account owner identification with users’ consent.
Though young, Mono is rapidly making a name for itself and it has been able to partner with over 16 financial institutions in Nigeria as well as offering its services to over a hundred businesses such as Aella Credit, Autochek, Carbon, Credpal, Renmoney, Autochek, and Inflow Finance.
In addition to building API infrastructure, the YC-backed startup also has a vision to power the internet economy in Africa. To this, Hassan, Co-founder of Mono said,
“The way I see it, our market is not that big. Compare the payments market now with 2016, when Paystack and Flutterwave just started. The payments space in 2016 was very small and the number of people using cards online was very small.”
“It’s the same thing for us right now. That’s why our focus isn’t only on open banking but data. We’re thinking of how we can power the internet economy with data that isn’t necessarily financial data,” he added.
He also revealed that the new capital will help the company double down on its core platform (Mono Connect) and launch new products and features to secure Mono’s position as the most powerful and reliable platform that is helping businesses and developers to access financial accounts in Africa.
The startup is also planning its expansion into other African countries namely Ghana and Kenya within the next month.
Featured Image: Abdul Hassan and Prakhar Singh, Co-founders, Mono
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