Waza, a B2B payment and liquidity provider with operations in Ghana and Nigeria has raised $8 million to make it easier for African businesses, traders, and other large organisations to manage and pay their suppliers globally.
Timon Capital made the $5 million debt funding while the $3 million seed equity round from institutional and strategic investors like Y Combinator, Byld Ventures, Norrsken Africa, Heirloom VC, Plug and Play Tech Center, Olive Tree Capital, and others.
According to Maxwell Obi, CEO and co-founder of Waza, “We are excited to announce this new funding that brings us closer to our vision of transforming B2B payments and access to liquidity for businesses across the continent. By providing a more efficient settlement infrastructure, we are bridging the foreign exchange and liquidity gap and empowering African businesses to access more global trade opportunities that will drive economic growth and development in the markets we serve. We’re thankful for the support and commitment of our investors and partners, who have been essential in the delivery of this mission.”
Launched in January 2023, Waza joined YCombinator’s Winter 23 batch and has since served hundreds of businesses, processing over $700 million in annualised payment volume, facilitating business payments across six continents, and impressively growing at 20% monthly. The company achieved profitability in the fourth quarter of 2023 and has successfully sustained its profitability into 2024. The new funding will support its expansion into new markets beyond its current operations in Ghana and Nigeria, as well as the delivery of new trade finance solutions.
With the dominance of the US dollar (USD) in global trade, the trade deficit in many emerging economies means the demand for USD typically outstrips available supplies. This imbalance negatively impacts the flow of trade, adding unnecessary costs and delays to the movement of various products and services. While there is already a wide range of Africa-focused cross-border payments and USD banking solutions for freelancers, diaspora, and remote workers, these products are typically geared towards consumers and multi-currency bank accounts, with limited emphasis on improving liquidity for large enterprises and multinational organisations in emerging markets, a $7 trillion market with a $280 billion revenue opportunity.
Waza‘s B2B payment and liquidity platform makes it easy for emerging market businesses to pay their suppliers globally and is building the payment infrastructure that will help improve foreign exchange liquidity in these markets while giving businesses a secure, easier, and more affordable way to make their global payments.
Chris Muscarella, Managing Director of Timon Capital, said, “The Waza team has deep experience around cross-border flows, and they are going after one of the bigger opportunities in frontier markets. We’re excited to finally have a chance to partner with Maxwell and the team.”
Waza’s founding team consists of Maxwell Obi who previously co-founded and exited Amplify, a Nigeria-based fintech that was acquired by Carbon in 2019. He was also Head of Business at Sendwave, where he led market expansion, partnerships, and regulatory relationships in Africa, Asia, and Latin America until the company was acquired by Worldremit for $500m in 2021.
Emmanuel, on the other hand, was a senior engineer at Revolut in London, leading the engineering team building the Vaults product. He has also held leading roles at other top technology/payment companies, including Moniepoint, Fairmoney, and Carbon.