Nigerian mobile security startup secures up to $10m in funding round

Nigerian financial security app, i.Sec, has closed a US$10-million funding round with local private equity firm Synergy Capital, according to the company website.

“…Synergy Capital, a Lagos, Nigeria financial advisory firm, and i.Sec are pleased to announce that they have entered into an Investment Agreement of up to US$10 million.”

The startup has been operating in stealth mode for a while now, but is ready for its public launch in May. The actual terms of the deal is quite hush-hush and we have reached out to both parties for comment.

The company refers to itself as a “business and socioeconomic solutions Development Company”. The idea is to use technology to bridge the “gap that exists in business processes and socioeconomic structures”. The startup argues that often international technologies cannot be leveraged in local African business environments as those technologies aren’t unique to the African market and “sometimes they are not flexible to adapt”. Its solution is “to create systems that meet such needs with local knowledge and support to modify as appropriate”.

Its vision is to be the number one mobile consumer software provider in Africa by year 2020.

The product is access authentication middleware that uses out-of-band methods to authorise a user. According to the startup its solution protects customers from unwanted and malicious debits on their accounts and also enables the customer with the ability to either, approve transactions, decline them or report fraud real-time.

Synergy Capital is a generalist fund focused on expansion and growth capital in Nigeria and Ghana with a US$75-million fund. Since launching in 2007 the company has raised more US$550-million “for 15 world class management teams who have created over $1billion in shareholder value”.

It is also looking to expand to other viable African markets.

Synergy is a great partner to help i.Sec grow.

The way we understand this deal, by signing an “Investment Agreement” that dictates the terms of the deal, which is the legal document that comes after a Due Diligence, this is practically done and dusted.

According to our VC sources there will still be a “Conditions Precedent” in the agreement to be fulfilled before it starts raining money.

Update:

Since publishing this story i.Sec has edited the copy on its site to read as follows:

“Techlaunchpad gave us the opportunity to raise the private equity funding we required from Synergy Capital.”

The startups notes that it is part of the Techlaunchpad a government and private sector incubation programme.