Scale, an Issuer Orchestration Platform and pioneering payments enabler, has raised $700,000 in Pre-Seed funding led by early-stage investors 54 Collective and First Circle Capital, with participation from Sunny Side Venture Partners and prominent industry angel investors.
Founded in 2022 by Miranda Perumal, Roy Markham, and Barbara Woolams, Scale is an African fintech startup that simplifies the card issuance process for businesses across the continent. The company’s proprietary platform referred to as SOIL (Scale Orchestration Issuing Layer), offers end-to-end infrastructure for fintechs to launch and manage card products quickly and efficiently.
Miranda Perumal, CEO of Scale said, “This is not just what we do; it’s embedded in the very core of our values. With the support of our esteemed investors and partners, we are well-positioned to accelerate ecosystem engagement, build trust with African businesses, and continue focusing on solving major challenges in enabling card rails by delivering unrivaled, world-class service.”
The company aims to use this funding to execute its expansion into Kenya, Zambia, and Cote d’Ivoire, where it aims to revolutionize the payments landscape by enabling critical payment use cases with speed and efficiency.
According to Hetal Patel, Chief Investment Officer at 54 Collective, by simplifying the card-issuing process and addressing key pain points, Scale is uniquely positioned to unlock value for its clients, many of whom offer products and services for the underserved, like women and youth.
“At 54 Collective, we believe in backing ventures poised to disrupt industries and drive real impact across the continent, including through widening financial inclusion and enabling entrepreneurship and business growth. The Scale team, led by a rockstar female founder, deep sector expertise and proven bias toward action truly excite us, and we look forward to seeing Scale become a critical enabler for fintechs,” Patel says.
Selma Ribica of First Circle Capital, notes that the African continent as a whole has the lowest payment card penetration per capita in the world. African fintechs and corporates wanting to enhance their product offering by adding cards, face a range of challenges which slows down their ability to launch and manage the service.
“It takes approximately 18 months for any business to launch a card product, if achievable at all. This complex process requires technical expertise and a strong network across a wide range of partners for card management. Scale offers fintechs and corporates a Card-as-a-Service platform, a pre-approved card management scheme product including all the typical card features,” says Ribica.
“Customers can plug into this product and launch a card within a few weeks, reducing time to revenue for Scale’s clients. We were convinced by Scale’s team expertise and track record in this field of card issuing, and believe their technology-led and partnership-led approach is the best way to scale this business”.
Sadaharu Saiki, Founder & GP of Sunny Side Venture Partners describes one of Africa’s most pressing challenges as access to and simplicity of payments. Even as numerous fintech solutions emerge, the card still remains the gold standard, especially as cross border transactions become an increasing necessity.
Card penetration within the African market hasn’t been an easy job at all – until now. Scale is tackling the complex task of card issuing with remarkable ease, across multiple countries, and significantly improving the lives of people across the continent, Saiki says.
“The combination of the team’s decades of collective experience, spanning more than 40 African nations, with their dedication to moving Africa forward, Scale can change what was once an ambitious goal, into an achievable reality”, he notes.
According to a 2022 report by BPC Banking Technologies and the Fintech Consultancy Group (Fincog), Card penetration rates in sub-Saharan Africa remain extremely low, it stands at around 3% for credit cards and 18% for debit cards.
Scale is actively engaging global investors and partners for similar collaborations, aiming to empower any-tech business with payment and card use cases in Africa. The company’s robust pipeline, bolstered by its scheme and bank partnerships, sets it apart as a formidable player in the fintech industry.
“We are not just another startup; Scale is fuelled through Venture Capital and built on the foundation of an unyielding passion to empower Africa’s fintechs. With our unmatched expertise, finely-honed skills, and core focus on execution, we are more than a funded operation—we are a promise kept,” concludes Perumal.
