On a mission to streamline cross border commerce from Africa to other countries, Lagos and San Francisco-based Klasha has received an additional $2.1 million in completion of its $4.5 million seed round.
Led by American Express (AMEX) Ventures, the strategic investment group of American Express and Global Ventures, a MENA-focused VC, the fund was raised from a group of international investors including Greycroft, Seedcamp, Plug and Play, Berrywood Capital and Breega.
Klasha is focused on helping merchants worldwide sell online to Africa and receive payments in local African currencies while enjoying super fast last-mile delivery to consumers across the continent.
Launched in 2021 and having a consumer base of about 45,000 customers, a 4x growth from last October, the startup serves businesses and consumers via its suite of products connected via one API. With its KlashaCheckout product, merchants outside Africa can collect payments from six countries including Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa and Kenya. They get paid in G20 currencies such as dollars, pounds or euros.
In these six countries, another of the startup’s products, KlashaWire, allows small merchants to pay suppliers in their local currencies, and these suppliers can also receive payments in their dominant currency within three days. Again, a third product, Payment Links enables merchants who don’t have storefronts to accept payments and share links with customers via email or social media.
The company affirms to be growing 20% month-on-month in merchant acquisitions and 17.5% in transaction volume. Klasha has processed more than 210,000 transactions from over 1,700 merchants. Its revenue is made via sales commissions and subscriptions paid by merchants to use the platform for analytics.
Last year, Klasha’s consumer product allowed users in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya to create virtual cards, fund with their respective currencies and send and receive money. In an interview, Jessica Anuna, the company’s Founder, said Klasha would revamp the app to help retailers such as ASOS, Zara and H&M accept payments from African consumers.
The app, dubbed KlashaCart — which is only available in Nigeria — will allow consumers to shop from different retailers using naira and get their items delivered within 7-14 days via Klasha’s logistics arm. The platform will go live in Kenya in the next couple of months.
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