The financing round, which includes both equity and debt, was co-led by Polymorphic Capital with participation from other investors, including Octerra Capital, Faculty Group, and Trive Digital.

The funding will enable the company to expand its operations into Latin America and Southeast Asia, regions facing similar liquidity issues.

MANSA focuses on improving cash flow for payment providers by offering real-time liquidity solutions. Instead of traditional lending methods that require collateral, the company underwrites loans using transaction data, providing a more flexible and efficient approach.

“Our partnership with Tether is so consequential and why we’re working very closely together to make it the primary stablecoin in emerging markets,” said MANSA’s CEO, Mouloukou Sanoh.

Founded by Sanoh and Nkiru Uwaje, MANSA has quickly grown in the payments sector. Sanoh, an experienced investor in African fintechs, previously worked at web3 VC firm Adaverse, while Uwaje was formerly an innovation manager at SWIFT and led blockchain strategy for Dell in the UK and Ireland.

The startup’s model is particularly relevant in emerging markets where payment providers often struggle with liquidity shortages, leading to delayed transactions and increased costs. 

According to MANSA, cross-border payments are projected to reach $290.2 trillion annually by 2030, and inefficiencies in the system could result in huge financial losses for businesses.

Beyond Africa, where MANSA has been primarily active, the company is now targeting Latin America and Southeast Asia, aiming to provide the same liquidity solutions to businesses facing similar challenges. 

To support this expansion, it has secured $7 million in liquidity funding from institutions, including corporate investors, quantitative funds, and hedge funds.

MANSA reports strong growth since its launch in August 2024. The company’s transaction volume surged from $1.6 million in its first month to $11 million in January 2025, with a compounded monthly growth rate of 37.5%.

So far, MANSA has processed nearly $31 million in transactions and expects to reach a $1 billion total payment volume run rate this year.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that the stablecoin provider is “proud to collaborate with MANSA and support their efforts to reshape global payment infrastructure.”

In addition to its liquidity solutions, MANSA is investing in regulatory compliance. The company has brought on industry veterans, including the former head of HSBC North Asia and the chief legal officer of Franklin Templeton, to strengthen its oversight. 

MANSA’s compliance measures include AML checks, sanction screening, KYC, KYB, transaction monitoring, and blockchain analytics tools.

Moving forward, the company plans to expand beyond liquidity provision. “We’re starting by being the primary liquidity provider to the biggest payment companies across emerging markets,” Sanoh explained.

“From there, we can handle payouts and also offer additional services like foreign exchange. The goal is to create a one-stop payment platform where they can finance their payments, settle transactions instantly, and access foreign currency seamlessly—all in one place.”

With a growing client base that includes B2B payment platforms, virtual card providers, stablecoin infrastructure companies, forex platforms, and remittance firms, MANSA’s impact on the global payments landscape is expected to deepen.

The company claims that clients using its solutions have already seen a 30% increase in transaction volumes and a 10% boost in revenue.

Vitaly Spassky, managing partner, Polymorphic Capital, said Mansa is here to disrupt a massive traditional market with blockchain and the Web3 paradigm. “Polymorphic supports extraordinary founders. The Mansa team is up to this incredible challenge.”

Ashim Egunjobi, managing partner, Octerra Capital, also stated: “We invested in MANSA because of their bold, diverse, high-calibre team of visionary founders addressing critical challenges faced by payments companies in Emerging Markets. We firmly believe that decentralized finance and asset tokenization are game-changing frontier technologies. With immense market potential in emerging economies, MANSA is uniquely positioned to drive transformative impact and bridge the credit gap across Africa.”

“We are incredibly excited to have been the first investor in Mansa. Our decision to invest was driven primarily by our strong confidence in the leadership team, and we are certain they will continue to validate our belief. Additionally, we are thrilled about the future of crypto payments and Mansa’s potential to make transactions in emerging markets faster, cheaper, and more efficient,” Sebastian Cheek, head of Investment, Faculty Group

Shawn Tan, general partner, TRIVE Digital, commented that MANSA addresses a fundamental liquidity challenge in cross-border payments, leveraging stablecoins to create more efficient and accessible financial rails. “TRIVE Digital backs visionary founders building the future of Web3, and we are excited to support the MANSA team as they drive transformative impact in the global payments industry.”

Despite rapid growth in these markets, which are projected to expand at 8-10% annually, compared to 3-5% in developed markets, the lack of real-world healthcare data hinders decision-making in product development, treatment interventions, and healthcare financing. 

These regions also have the least amount of big data to support effective commercial planning and clinical research.

Founded by Ayodeji Alaran, a pharmacist trained at the University of Lagos with experience at GSK, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, PBR Life Sciences pivoted to big data and analytics in 2021 to bridge these critical gaps. 

The company now provides fast, reliable access to real-world healthcare data and insights for pharmaceutical firms, health tech startups, consulting firms, multilateral agencies, and research institutions across Africa, Europe, America, and Asia.

PBR Sciences was one of the twelve (12) startups that participated in the second cohort of the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator programme. 

Its real-world data-as-a-service platforms help its users and clients make data-backed decisions on product pricing, forecasting, new product development, disease and treatment interventions, healthcare financing and company strategy. 

Before now, PBR Life Sciences only offered data and insights about the Nigerian healthcare market. It has spent the past two years laying the foundation for its pioneering AI infrastructure powered by its proprietary real-world, anonymized, healthcare data in Africa, whilst consolidating its business model. 

The investment, which included investors such as Launch Africa, Microtraction, Kaleo Ventures, Octerra Capital, Marula Square, XA Africa, ARM Labs, and Techstars, will help the company scale its data-as-a-service platforms in Nigeria. It will also aid its expansion into Ghana and Kenya to replicate its already proven business model. 

PBR Life Sciences is looking to deepen its offering as a multivariate, multichannel healthcare real-world big data analytics, technology, and consulting provider in Africa and other emerging markets, supporting the life sciences industry.

The company is working to close this gap by being a leading provider of real-world, healthcare big data and analytics in emerging markets by the year 2030.

Speaking of the funding, Ayodeji Alaran, CEO and founder said, “Being backed by some of the most reputable  venture capital investors and angels in Africa not only inspires us as a team to do more but further validates the vital need to close the gap of inadequate real-world, healthcare big data that will power AI and innovation for the sector whilst unlocking global life sciences growth that will be powered by the region.” 

“This will unlock value for the least understood healthcare and unmet needs in Africa and the rest of emerging markets,” he added. “With this fresh capital, we are now well positioned to achieve our ambitious growth plan, with a laser focus on profitability,” he concluded.

According to Uwem Uwemakpan, head of Investments, at Launch Africa, “PBR’s innovative approach to addressing a critical healthcare challenge in Africa, combined with its strong founding team and substantial market opportunity, establishes it as a key player in enhancing healthcare delivery on the continent. We are excited to be part of this journey.”

Ashim Egunjobi, managing partner at Octerra Capital said: “Since our first interaction with Ayodeji, we have been convinced that PBR Sciences has a tremendous potential to unlock access to health data across Africa. PBR Sciences has developed an impressive proprietary technology and leveraged big data while providing significant insights and value to a large set of corporate clients. We are excited to be part of this investment round and to support Ayodeji and his team on this promising journey.”

Damilare Mesimo at ARM Labs commented: “PBR Life Sciences’ achievement is a testament to the power of innovation and resilience in addressing critical gaps in healthcare data within emerging markets. We are proud to have supported PBR Life Sciences through the ARM Labs Lagos TechStars Accelerator Program, where they demonstrated exceptional vision and execution.

“This milestone reflects their ability to leverage real-world data and AI to transform decision-making in the life sciences sector. At ARM Labs, we remain committed to nurturing startups like PBR that drive impactful solutions, and we are excited to see their continued growth and expansion across Africa and beyond.”

Ato Bentsi-Enchill, investment principal and SPV lead at Microtraction added, “As early-stage investors, our goal is to identify and assess standout founders who we believe have the ability to build category-defining businesses. Ayo fits this bill and has shown remarkable clarity in his vision for the future of PBR in putting together a very capable team to execute on this vision. We’re excited to back PBR on their mission to organize Africa’s healthcare data.”