Leading fintech startup founders and top executives across Africa have led the Nigerian fintech startup Payhippo in a $3-million seed round, as the firm moves to scale its operations.
The round will allow the fintech startup to strengthen its operations and technology and deliver on its promise to bridge the financing gap facing African businesses.
The round was secured through investments by Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, co-founders of Chipper Cash, Olugbenga Agboola, founder of Flutterwave, Hakeem Belo-Osagie of Metis Capital Partners and Bolaji Balogun of Chapel Hill Denham.
It marks a growing trend in the African tech space, as founders and industry experts join hands to complete pre-seed and seed funding rounds for new players in the continent’s tech space.
Payhippo is an AI-driven lending platform that provides loans to small businesses in under three hours and helps them effectively spend lender capital.
It was founded in January 2020 by Zach Bijesse, Chioma Okotcha and Uche Nnadi, who hold key positions in the startup as the CEO, COO and CTO, respectively.
Other participants in the round included angel investors from Paystack, Brex and Tala. TEN13, VentureSouq and Prodigio Capital were the only institutional ventures to invest in the round.
Payhippo has now raised a total of $4 million in its pre-seed and seed funding rounds
Payhippo’s $3-million round follows a $1-million pre-seed round in the second half of 2021.
Aside from the initial capital that the founders raised to kickstart the platform in 2020, Payhippo has raised a total of $4 million.
Information gathered by Billionaires.Africa revealed that Payhippo has disbursed N1 billion ($2.43 million) to more than 450 registered small and medium enterprises on its platform since 2020.
In September 2021, it earned $64,000 in revenue from the $900,000 in disbursed loans, as it experienced 25-percent monthly growth, with a 97-percent loan repayment rate.
What the founders are saying
Payhippo COO Chioma Okotcha said the round will allow the group to invest in hiring engineers and data scientists, as it aims to improve its technology and enhance lending offerings in line with its commitment to address the financing gap facing small businesses in Nigeria.
“At Payhippo, our vision is to provide millions of small businesses with sufficient and available capital to run and grow their businesses,” she said.
Meanwhile, Serunjogi and Moujaled of Chipper Cash, which recently hit a $2-billion valuation, were reported as saying that they are bullish on supporting new financial technologies in Africa in a move to enhance the competitive landscape in the continent’s financial sector.
Chapel Hill Denham Founder and CEO Bolaji Balogun added that it is exciting to see Payhippo use its technology to provide SMEs in Africa with access to finances to run their businesses.
“By lending to small businesses, Payhippo is allowing business owners access to much-needed working capital to grow their businesses and create jobs in the economy,” he said.
