PayDunya is a FinTech startup amongst those that pitched at the very recent Seedstars Dakar. The startup focuses on payment for businesses and start-ups. TechMoran chats with the co-founder and CEO, Abdulaziz Yerima as he shares insights about his startup. Why he thinks PayDunya would survive in an almost saturated FinTech industry, how they are being funded, what informed the launch of the startup and all.
He also tells what he thinks is the greatest challenge and threat to FinTech in Africa. Do enjoy the piece.
In just a few words, pitch your startup to us.
PayDunya is global payment & e-commerce infrastructure for businesses to collect/disburse remotely payments from African mobile money wallets, money transfer voucher and credit/debit cards in one single solution.
What informed the launch of Paydunya, are you solving a problem you encountered yourself?
Yes, here is our story :
In 2013, we were in a student association ENACTUS.
We had a project with women association. They transformed local cereals and were selling it. They showed us many problem and we choose to help them on their distribution network. So as a geek, we design them e-commerce website to bring their product to all local and international potential customers.
For this project, we show two problems: first, we can’t pay domain name for website because we did not have bank card and second, they can’t accept payment on this website because PayPal does not allow African businesses to use their solution. So in 2015, we create PayDunya to solve this problem by enabling local and international e-businesses accept payment from African and international customer from mobile money wallet, money transfer service branch and credit/debit card.
How has growth been since launch? Have you made significant progress?
We launched in November 2016, and we already get 30 e-merchants, with average 320 monthly transaction and 30% monthly growth.
Tell us about the team behind Paydunya.
We are 3 co-founders. Now 5 people and 1 mentor. CEO : Aziz YERIMA, R&D: Honore HOUNWANOU, CTO: Christian PALOUKI, PM: Youma FALL CMO: Adam TALL
What differentiates Paydunya in an already saturated Fintech industry?
It’s not about being another payment solution. It’s about being a payment company for startups and e-businesses.
How is the startup funded? Bootstrapped or you already have investments?
We have bootstraped since launch and we actually are looking for investors to grow and scale business.
How do you feel pitching your startup at Seedstars Dakar?
It’s was a great experience, we finished at third position. But more important we got exposure and potentials investors.
In 5 years, tell us how you envisage Paydunya.
In 5 Years, we’ll build a $50m company with presence in 12 french speak countries.
What do you think is the greatest challenge of the Fintech industry in Africa?
The greatest challenge is CASH, I think. African still love using money in cash and this is our big barrier.
