Dash, a unified and accessible payments app has raised $32.8 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Global Founders Capital and 4DX Ventures.
Other investors in the round include ASK Capital, Techstars, Guillaume Pousaz’s Zinal Growth Partners, Jitendra Gupta of Jupiter Money, Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, the founders of Moss, executives from ProcessOut (acquired by Checkout.com), and the founders of PennyLane.
Dash aims to utilise the funds to expand to new markets such as Tanzania and South Africa, as well as get the licenses necessary to operate there, build out its team, invest in technology, and launch new features.
Dash was founded by Prince Boakye Boampong with a bid to create a unified payments app to increase efficiency and accessibility for the estimated 1.3 billion Africans currently transacting via digital payments. In 2014, Mr. Boampong was in Kenya and witnessed the way most unbanked Kenyans were sending money and paying bills with M-pesa.
First launching in 2020, Dash has created a unique alternative payment network that brings together mobile money and traditional banks, to facilitate the processing of transactions for consumers and businesses.
Prince Boakye Boampong, Founder, Dash said, “Once I saw that mobile money was more accessible to the average Kenyan, and allowed for faster transactions, without the need for traditional banking, I knew that it was forever going to change the financial landscape in Africa, however, I also recognized that interoperability would immediately pose a challenge.”
“We’re building this interoperability so a Kenyan traveling to Ghana or Ghanaian traveling to Kenya would be able to pay for stuff without having to change currencies or setting up accounts when they touch the ground .We’re taking a page from AliPay and PayTm by building features that will make the lives of our users easier without having to switch from different providers.” Prince added.
Deven Parekh, Managing Director, Insight Partners, said “Dash stands out against competitors with its consumer-friendly, highly flexible wallet offerings to meet the needs of African consumers. Dash’s platform acts as infrastructure for the large percentage of Africans that are unbanked, removing the barriers associated with daily transactions and cash utilization. We look forward to working with Prince and the Dash team as they continue to grow and scale up.”
Dash’s 1 million+ customers have processed over $1 billion since its launch in 2020, showing exponential month-over-month growth. Currently ,the company is operating in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, in January 2022 alone, Dash reported a Total Processed Volume (TPV) of over $300 million, up 3X on a monthly basis from Q4 2021.
