Nigerian fintech company, TeamApt, recently raised an investment of over $50 million led by US venture capitalist, QED Investors.
Novastar Ventures co-led the investment round, Lightrock and BII also participated in the round.
Being QED Investors’ first African investment, the VC states that TeamApt’s solution and achievement so far were interesting factors that led to its investment in the startup.
“Tosin Eniolorunda and his team have steadily built an impressive payments network across the country over the past five years. They already process payments for more than 400,000 merchants and some of these merchants also serve as ‘human ATMs’ helping more than 1 million customers across the country pay in cash into their bank accounts or receive cash locally when needed. A good use case for this may be for your car service at a local store in Kano – you can take out some cash next door with a TeamApt agent.”
QED Investors want to tap into the opportunity brought about by challenges in offline payments across Nigeria’s financial services industry.
“In a country like Nigeria where there are roughly nine ATMs per 100,000 people – a number that can be drastically lower in the inner, more rural parts of the country – this presents a complex payment problem nationwide. Simply put, the penetration is not there.
For comparison, Canada, which has one of the highest concentrations in the world, has 210 ATMs per 100,000 people. Based on a study of 110 countries with data provided by The World Bank, the average is 61 per 100,000 residents.”
QED Investors’ investment in TeamApt is in line with building solutions to issues faced by small businesses and merchants in Nigeria.
“Payments are critical, but so is having access to credit, being able to balance their books and being able to bank effectively. To solve the growing needs, you need to not only help them collect money, but you need to help store it, manage it and give them access to it in the most convenient manner possible.”
The VC affirms its satisfaction with TeamApt’s focus on execution and customer obsession across the entire product spectrum. “What they’re building today will help shape the future of payments in Nigeria forever.”
