The fund will drive the company’s expansion, particularly in Asia, where it plans to open a new office in Hangzhou, China; a known hub for e-commerce and payment service providers (PSSPs), home to major companies like Alibaba. 

Klasha also aims to strengthen its B2B payment solutions, offering businesses the ability to send and receive payments across Africa and Asia more efficiently.

Existing investors in the round included Expert Dojo, Alumni Ventures, Practical VC, Breega, My Asia VC, Resilience17, and Magic Fund. Brian Mac Mahon, founder and CEO of Expert Dojo, said: “We’re excited to re-invest in Klasha at a time when they’re rapidly scaling into B2B payments between emerging markets and Asia, providing more seamless, faster payment rails to their global merchants.”

Klasha’s platform supports payout and collection APIs, enabling businesses to pay partners in local African currencies such as NGN, KES, and UGX, while paying in USD, EUR, or CNY. 

This eliminates the challenges of currency exchange, allowing businesses to process payments swiftly to bank accounts or mobile wallets.

Again, Klasha’s Payment Links service allows businesses without e-commerce stores to collect payments online from African customers, receiving payouts in their chosen currency without needing a website or complex technical setup. 

Klasha Wire offers another key solution for businesses, enabling them to pay global suppliers from emerging markets in local currencies, with no hidden fees or monthly charges. Payments are typically settled within one to three business days, providing a reliable solution for international transactions.

Klasha is focused on ensuring high security for all transactions, with compliance to PCI-DSS and ISO-270001 standards. Its platform includes advanced Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, two-factor authentication, and regular audits to maintain transparency and protect users’ data. 

The company is also regulated in multiple jurisdictions, further strengthening its position in the global payments industry.

In addition to its Asian expansion, Klasha has obtained a Money Services Business (MSB) license in the United States, allowing it to operate as a currency exchange and money transmitter. This strengthens Klasha’s presence as a global payment facilitator, expanding its reach beyond Africa and Asia.

Jess Anuna, CEO of Klasha, commented on the latest developments: “We’re thrilled to announce our latest funding round and investment into the Asian market. We already work with merchants at scale in the region and are looking forward to expanding our capabilities there, fostering more seamless B2B payments between the two continents. With this investment and the addition of Justin Fan, we are confident that we can tap into the immense B2B payment opportunities in the Asian market and drive sustainable growth for the company.”

Currently, Klasha serves over 10,000 merchants and has processed more than 140 million transactions across emerging markets.

The company’s growth is supported by partnerships with major Asian PSSPs such as Coda Pay, Fomo Pay, and Easy Transfer, and it continues to deliver competitive foreign exchange rates and faster transaction times for businesses globally.

The round was led by Lofty Inc Capital, and had participation from Techstars – Boulder, Magic Fund, Hustle Fund, Norrsken Foundation, Microtraction, DFS Labs, Oxford Seed Fund, Enza Capital, Agrolay Advisors, Ire Aderinokun, Jesse Ovia, Ademola Adesina, and other angel investors.

Founded by Guy Futi (CEO), Adinlewa “Fikayo” Akinwale (CTO), Mark Edomwande, Kunle Ogungbamila, and Namir El-Khouri, Orda.Africa is a cloud-based restaurant operating system built for African chefs and food business owners.

Orda’s ePos, integrations, and lending solutions enable Africa’s millions of food business owners to grow and scale their businesses. With Orda, restaurants can manage end-to-end operations from one place.

Orda has developed a full-stack approach to integrating local payments, logistic companies while building inventory management, and business analytics for small to medium-sized food businesses. It says it is the only technology solution on the continent that allows restaurants to accept and process all their in-store, website, social media, Whatsapp, Jumia Food, Glovo, Bolt Food orders from one easy-to-use interface.

Speaking on the inspiration behind the technology, Guy Futi, CEO of Orda said “We kept trying to address the very real pain points of chefs, caterers and small restaurants and from that Orda grew. Before Orda, a small food business owner could spend up to 4 hours a day  reconciling transactions while trying to figure out losses. We looked to alleviate that burden. In the process we noticed that food business owners were not fully integrated with local payment solutions, online sales channels, and logistic providers. This made their operations even more difficult.”

Although a relatively new technology subsector, cloud-based points of sales have been rising in popularity in recent years.

A 2021 report put the global market size at $72.8 billion is expected to reach USD 116.27 billion by 2026. In the US, market leaders, Toast —which Orda is modeled after, announced revenues of $486.4 million in Q3 2021.

In Africa, Orda is believed to be among the first bottom-up software providers for restaurants. Built by an African team, the startup’s cloud-based solution factors peculiarities unique to the market. For instance, their ePos has the ability to operate in remote areas with little to no internet coverage.

“Orda was built from a near 18 months of a collaborative customer feedback loop. We listened to everything, from how African restaurants reconcile inventory, how customers pay, to how they handle logistics and more. We can confidently say that no one has done as much work as we have to build an end-to-end solution for our food business owners. We are excited to usher in much needed digitization to the sector”, says Fikayo Akinwale, the CTO.

The startup’s cloud-based solution is currently available for restaurants in Nigeria and Kenya. Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has been growing at more than 15% week over week as Orda now processes thousands of weekly transactions.

Speaking on the raise, Idris Ayodeji Bello, managing partner of LoftyInc Capital said, “We loved investing in Orda because it is building the core digital infrastructure for restaurants across Africa. The team has done the hard work of figuring out the core problems that African restaurant owners are facing and is building a solution that can revolutionise the food business across the continent. LoftyInc is excited to back a solution-focused team like Orda.”

Following the raise, the startup is looking to increase its rate of growth and expansion across the continent.