Mono, a Nigerian fintech startup that is building open banking infrastructure that allows digital businesses in Africa access to customer financial data and bank payments, has announced a US$15 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global to help it accelerate its continental expansion plans.
Mono, which was founded by ex-Paystack employee and CEO Abdul Hassan and CTO Prakhar Singh and launched in 2020, allows its partners ,internet businesses and developers to create apps that make instant transfers from their customers’ bank accounts, help them understand their users’ cash flow with more detailed information, and provide convenient credit, among other things.
New investors including Target Global, General Catalyst, and SBI Investments joined current investors like Entrée, Acuity, Ingressive, Lateral Capital, and GPIC in this round.
This new funding raise brings the total raised from inception to $17.625 million, which includes the $2 million raised in May 2021, $500,000 in pre-seed funding in September 2020, and $125,000 from Ycombinator.
Mono’s development into other African regions and markets will be enabled by the funding round, which will allow the company to strengthen its major product offerings and develop new products for African businesses, as well as strengthen its overall infrastructure.
“What we’ve built, and have continued to build barely a year after we started this journey, will take us closer to our vision of becoming the most robust open banking service provider in Africa. Our new and existing investors understand and believe in our product vision and we are excited to have them on board with us for the next phase of our journey,” said Mono chief executive officer (CEO) Abdul Hassan.
“This new investment round will power all the workings of that next phase. It will help us double down on products and experiences that we can offer growing digital African businesses and by extension, consumers across the continent. It will also aid our ongoing expansion efforts to other African markets like Ghana where we’ve kicked off, and South Africa which is our next stop.”
According to John Curtius, a partner at Tiger Global, said Mono is building both the present and future of open banking services for digital businesses in Africa.
“We are excited to be on board with them as they continue to grow rapidly and build innovative products for financial data access and payments, as trailblazers in this new industry across Africa,” he said.