Zambian fintech startup, Union54, has received another investment from Tiger Global, a leading venture capital firm.
The $3 million seed round, which was led by Tiger Global, is coming just two months after the startup graduated from the summer batch of Y Combinator’s program.
Participants in the round include Ace & Company, Vibe VC, Todd & Rahul Angel Fund, and Runa Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm.
Union54 also received cheques from angel investors like CEO of Kuda bank, Babs Ogundeyi; Wise’s former director of SMB Growth, Gbenga Ajayi; and managing director of Renaissance Capital, Risana Zitha.
Union54 plans to use this investment to expand its regional customer base and increase its team across the product, engineering, sales, and marketing fields.
“The purpose of this funding is to help us find the best of African talent, people who want to work on big problems.
The investment helps us to be able to go to them and say, ‘hey, we’re a well-funded company, we’ve got customers using us, we’re earning revenue and this is going to be one of the most important companies to come out of Africa.”
Andre Bliznyuk, Runa’s general partner, said while speaking about the investment, that the company is excited to support Union54’s efforts to “supercharge the African fintech ecosystem by enabling their customers to easily launch new card-based products and deliver tangible value to the consumers.”
Union54 was founded by Perseus Mlambo and Alessandra Martini in 2021 as a spinoff from Zazu, a previous firm that they launched six years ago.
It is an Application Programming Interface (API) that enables software companies in Africa to issue and manage debit cards without interference from banks or third-party processors.
Currently, according to Mlambo, more than 50 companies – ranging from digital banks to post-Series A fintechs and companies founded due to Union54’s availability – are in Union54’s API sandbox environment, with four companies currently live in production and have begun issuing virtual cards to their customers.
Union54 partners with Flutterwave, and newer companies like crypto exchange platform, Bitmama, and cross-border fintechs, Payday and Plumter.
It currently has a small team of 10 located in Zambia, Nigeria, Europe, South Africa, and Malawi.
Featured Image: Perseus Mlambo, Co-Founder, Union54
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