Nomanini, the company that delivers physical prepaid vouchers through its little cloud-connected box, has secured an undisclosed amount in series-B funding from Seychelles-based investment company Rockbridge Investments Limited.
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The latest financing brings the startup’s total raised capital to over R20-million — roughly US$2-million. The funds will enable Nomanini to expand its prepaid platform across Africa and in to other developing countries.
In 2012, Nomanini raised US$600 000 in series-A funding from Netherlands based eVentures Africa Fund (eVA Fund) as well as Esther Dyson — the angel investor who sits on the board of companies such as 23andMe, Evernote and Meetup.
As Africa races towards an estimated 1 billion mobile subscribers by 2015, CEO Vahid Monadjem’s company is looking to appeal to mobile subscribers — many who are unbanked — and local businesses. Nomanini’s colourful point of sale device has been well received by shop owners who earn an income while selling prepaid vouchers to its regular customers.
Rockbridge has been looking for some time for the right investment in the mobile space in Africa, says Vandy Massey, Rockbridge Investments’ key adviser on the South African market. “In Nomanini we found a company with the ideal mix of strong technology, robust business processes, and speed of delivery,” she adds.
Launched in 2011, Nomanini is now active in South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique and currently expanding to Nigeria, Guinea and Somalia.
“At the moment we are at a very exciting inflection point, having proven our underlying technology and business model in multiple counties. We are growing fast,” said Monadjem. The funds will enable Nomanini to scale operations internationally, helping to streamline the fulfillment process, recruit talent needed to keep up with the necessary growth and develop the next generation of payment processing tools for informal retailers.
Monadjem says that in Nomanini also stands to benefit from the enterprise B2B business development knowledge that Massey brings to the table.
