Nigerian multi-merchant loyalty and cashback platform, ThankUCash, has closed a $5,300,000 seed round.
ThankUCash was launched by Connected Analytics in 2018 with a mission to create solutions that help SMEs succeed while increasing consumer buying power and opportunities.
Led by Venture Capitalist firms 500 Global and Unicorn Growth Capital, ThankUCash’s seed round included participation from U.S.-based accelerator Expert Dojo, Predictive VC, SaaS Growth Ventures, Betatron Venture Group and Accelerex Holdings. Angel investors such as Andrew Dell, former CEO of HSBC and Craig Fenton of Google UK also participated in the round.
The funds will enable ThankUCash expand across Nigeria and other countries such as Ghana and Kenya, as well as increase its team strength and improve its product offerings.
Simeon Ononobi, Suraj Supekar, Madonna Ononobi and Harshal Gandole founded ThankUCash to empower emerging businesses and build an infrastructure for rewards, loyalty, deals, buy now, pay later and cashback. Having recorded over 600,000 users and onboarded over 1,000 stores on its platform, the company affirms to have processed over $80,000,000 in transaction volume.
The company makes profits through payments made by merchants on every purchase made in their stores. For instance, ThankUCash gets a 1.5% commission for every customer it brings into the store to redeem a 5% cashback item. The company also takes commissions for deals and plans to charge a heavy onboarding fee for businesses that want to use its APIs for its services, including buy now, pay later.
ThankUCash’s cashback product enables merchants to get more walk-in customers. The company is improving the deals category, allowing merchants to sell products fast by hiring ex-managers of DealDey, a Nigerian defunct deals company.
Currently building its buy now pay later infrastructure — which gives businesses a chance to sell products regardless of customers having money or not — ThankUCash plans to add a fourth offering soon — a remittance product where merchants can sell directly to the diaspora.
