Pan-African fintech Appzone secures $10-million 

Based in Lagos, Appzone, a Pan-African fintech software provider that creates proprietary solutions for Africa’s banking and payments industry, has secured $10-million in a Series A round of funding led by CardinalStone Capital Advisers with participation from V8 Capital, Lateral Investment Partners, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures.

Appzone secures $10-million in funding

Obi Emetarom, co-founder and CEO of Appzone comments on the funding raised. 

“We’re excited not only to be securing a significant capital raise, but also welcoming on board some strategic investors whose support will be key to our growth journey. Today’s news allows us to scale Appzone’s products and services rapidly. For the last 12 years, we’ve worked in stealth mode, building the really complex infrastructure to power the continent’s growing digital financial services space and forging partnerships with the continent’s biggest financial institutions.”

The funding will be used towards Appzone’s core technologies and the expansion of the platform to promote the digitisation and automation of the delivery of financial services in Africa.

Emetarom adds that the funding will help the fintech to increase its team member size and range of employed experts to elevate the platform’s current offering.

“In terms of next steps, we are now looking to hire from Africa’s top 1% to grow our team of elite talent who have proven themselves to be true African builders; the brightest senior software engineers and domain experts, doing the incredibly hard work of building the backbone andnext-generationn infrastructure for digital financial services at a level beyond world-class. We are seeking out gifted and audacious engineering and entrepreneurial minds, hungry to accelerate economic prosperity and tackle challenging technology with us. We are not just trying to bring African fintech on-par with the rest of the world – we exist to make our financial sector the most innovative and technologically advanced on the globe through solutions built for Africa by Africans.”

Appzone

Founded and launched in 2008, Appzone provides products for digital core banking and interbank transaction processing with clients across multiple African countries. 

Appzone claims to have served 18 commercial banks and over 450 microfinance banks and amassing a yearly transaction value and yearly loan disbursement of $2-billion and $300-million.

The products designed by Appzone assist African banks in addressing several challenges such as legacy cost structures and lack of operational efficiency. As there is a lack of African-based solutions, Appzone has created a solution catering to African banks, mitigating the blocks existing with African banks opting for foreign technology solutions.

With a track record of excellence in the fintech space, in 2008 Appzone obtained official approval from the Bank of Nigeria to operate as a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP).

Yomi Jemibewon, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Cardinal Stone Capital Advisers provides closing remarks on why the VC invested into Appzone.

“Our investment in Appzone is further proof of Africa’s potential as the future hub of world-class technology. Appzone is building a disruptive FinTech ecosystem that will be the backbone of Africa’s finance industry with products across payments, infrastructure, and Software as a Service. The impact of Appzone’s work is multifold – the company’s products deepen financial inclusion across the continent whilst providing best-fit and low-cost solutions to financial institutions. Its emphasis on premium talent also helps stem brain drain, rewarding Africa’s best brains with best in class employment opportunities.”

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Featured image: Founders of Appzone (Supplied)