That’s like trying to fly a plane with the wings bought in Ghana, the engine in Nigeria, and the fuel tanks left somewhere in Morocco. It’s a miracle the thing doesn’t fall out of the sky before take-off.

But then, these inefficiencies are expensive. With Africa operating with 41 active currencies, cross-border payments that still take two to five days, and fees that can hit 3–10%, businesses waste cash and time they can’t afford to lose. 

In a phase where African fintech revenues are projected to hit $30 billion by 2025, the majority of that story has been about consumers sending money home, not enterprises figuring out how to scale sustainably.

That’s the problem Bujeti has stepped into—a financial operating system that dares to stitch together the continent’s fragmented finance. “I usually use the analogy of buying cheap shoes,” says Cossi Achille Arouko, co-founder and CEO of Bujeti. “You can buy ten cheap shoes for 1,000 Naira each, and they will not last. Or you spend N10,000 on one good pair that lasts for years. It’s the same mentality we are applying to finance.”

A Rare YC Bet in Africa

Bujeti’s journey is unusual. When Y Combinator scaled back its African exposure between 2023 and 2024, pulling back from the flood of consumer-facing apps that had defined its bets—it still picked Bujeti. That was rare air. Out of more than 5,200 African startups (nearly half in fintech), only a handful convinced YC they had the DNA to survive.

Arouko believes his own background played a role. Before founding Bujeti, he worked at Paystack, one of Africa’s biggest fintech success stories. “We applied before in 2017 with my former co-founder,” he recalls. “We actually got interviewed by Michael [Seibel] himself. I guess having prior interaction with them, working at one of their most successful stories, having the backing and the track record that goes with it… it just made sense. But again, you don’t really know what makes them choose you. The only thing you know is they believe you can do it. And obviously a bit of craziness to try to do something like this in Africa.”

From Consumer Payments to Enterprise Finance

If Africa’s first fintech wave was about consumers, think mobile money, wallets, and peer-to-peer transfers, the next wave may well belong to enterprise. B2B fintech, including spend management, payroll, and cross-border finance, is now growing at 13–15% annually in markets like Nigeria, Ghana, and Egypt.

Bujeti started as a B2C idea, but quickly pivoted. “When I was pitching this to some friends back in Lagos, some of them just said, ‘Yeah, this is nice, but my company actually needs this,’” Arouko explains. “We looked around and realised there is nobody really trying to solve these problems for African businesses. So we over-rely on solutions from outside of the continent, and pay for those solutions even though they don’t fit our realities. That creates fragmentation.”

What Bujeti is building is closer to a fractional CFO in your pocket: one platform where payroll, spend management, taxes, compliance, and cross-border payments live side by side.

AI as Co-Pilot

The buzzword here is AI—but for Bujeti, it’s not hype. It’s practical. “We want to bring that fractional CFO into your palm or on your computer,” Arouko says. “By default, you will have a virtual finance team that will take care of everything you need to do. One might take care of your taxes, one your accounting, one your payments—all working in synergy.”

He gives an interesting example: “Imagine you want to make a payment to someone you’ve never paid before, or you don’t know their record. As soon as you want to make that payment, the AI will tell you: this company is a fraudster, or this transaction puts you at risk. Or imagine your vendor reduced prices two weeks ago, and you didn’t notice. The AI will tell you to call them to negotiate. That’s money saved instantly.”

It’s not about replacing accountants, he stresses, but about equipping companies too small to hire ten people with a virtual team they can afford.

Building Beyond Borders

Cross-border finance is another big headache. African companies dream regional, but their finance systems remain stubbornly local. Here Bujeti’s international DNA may give it an edge. Arouko is from Benin Republic, co-founder Samy Chiba from Morocco and France. 

“For me as an engineer, the product is built. The only difference from region to region is currency and regulation,” Arouko says. “So any business that uses Bujeti in Nigeria can deploy it in Côte d’Ivoire or Ghana. Every person in those countries will use the same software. If the boss clicks ‘A’ in Lagos, it’s ‘A’ in Accra. No calls, no shouting. It’s already there.”

Why Competitors Can’t Just Copy

The fintech space is crowded. But Bujeti’s moat, Chiba argues, lies in focus. “Automating business processes is the next big move,” he says. “Nothing prevents others from trying, but the most important thing is to understand business needs and position yourself in the value chain. Banks should be focused on moving money. We build on top of that. Trying to do everything is not the way.”

This emphasis on collaboration over competition is unusual in a market where startups usually fight for the same ground.

The Hardest Lesson

But if there’s one surprise the founders faced, it was how resistant people are to change. “You might have the best idea, but people still resist it,” Arouko admits. “Some saw us as a neobank. Asking them to pay to use Bujeti was a no. That’s why we started Bujeti Academy—to teach people what it means to manage your business the right way. In Africa, you can’t just charge from day one. You have to show value first.”

The Future They See

Project forward 10 years and the vision is commendable and resilient. “I want it to be possible for any young kid in Africa to say, I want to start a business, and everything they need—payments, taxes, payroll, budget, compliance—is already on one platform,” Arouko says. “All they should worry about is growth.”

Chiba explained that bigger picture further: “Our mission is not just about financial management. It’s about growth. If companies can grow, their regions can grow, and the whole continent can grow. Where you see frictions, you lose money, time, opportunities. Our role is to remove those frictions.”

In that vision, Bujeti could do for African enterprises what mobile money once did for consumers, bringing forth an economic wave. And if the statistics hold, it won’t just be about one startup’s success, but about bolstering how Africa’s $30 billion fintech narrative gets written in the years ahead.

The investment was led by Accion Venture Lab, with strong participation from existing investors Zrosk, Chui Ventures, and Zedcrest Capital.

Founded in 2020 in Nigeria, PaidHR has rapidly expanded to reach Pan-African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and tech startups across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. 

The majority of PaidHR’s users are logistics, retail, and manufacturing businesses with under 200 employees, whose reliance on manual, time-consuming processes has created inefficiencies and compliance challenges. 

PaidHR’s all-in-one platform enables businesses to scale efficiently and improve employee wellbeing by formalizing HR administration, automating both local and cross-border payroll, ensuring full regulatory compliance, and providing tailored financial services to employees.

By 2030, half of all new entrants into the global labor force will come from sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, 44 million SMEs provide an estimated 80% of jobs across the continent; however, these businesses are often informal and unable to provide HR and financial services to their employees. 

In Nigeria, 83% of the workforce lacks access to credit and cannot meet emergency and basic needs.

PaidHR aims to improve financial inclusion and promote economic resilience for Africa’s growing workforce. Through earned wage access (EWA), employees on PaidHR’s platform can access a portion of their salary before payday, helping to reduce reliance on predatory loans and alleviate financial stress. 

PaidHR’s integrated multi-currency wallet allows employees to receive payments and save in both local currency and USD, helping them navigate financial instability.

The platform also leverages payroll data to connect employees to other financial products, such as credit and savings plans, through partnerships with financial service providers.

“We are building HR management for the African context, and this funding allows us to scale our vision, expand our reach, and deliver even more value to our clients,” said Seye Bandele, CEO of PaidHR. 

“With the support of Accion Venture Lab and our returning investors, we are well- positioned to help small businesses grow and scale more effectively across borders.”

Amee Parbhoo, managing partner at Accion Venture Lab, commented: “PaidHR’s integrated platform is tackling deep-rooted structural challenges faced by small businesses and their employees in underserved markets, starting in Nigeria. 

“By combining human resources automation with embedded financial services like earned wage access and USD savings, the platform not only improves how businesses operate, but seeks to deliver meaningful financial inclusion for workers.

“We are proud to support the team as they deliver scalable, cost-effective solutions that help strengthen small businesses and enable employees to take control of their financial lives.”