After years of quietly bootstrapping its consumer fintech business, Nigerian startup Cardtonic has raised $2.1 million in seed funding to launch Pil, a standalone platform designed to help Nigerian businesses manage corporate card spending and recurring operational expenses.
The round was funded entirely by angel investors, a notable move at a time when early-stage venture capital remains cautious. Cardtonic says it had previously avoided fundraising, choosing instead to grow using revenue from its retail products, which include virtual dollar cards, gift cards, eSIMs and bill payments.
Pil marks Cardtonic’s first deliberate shift away from consumer fintech. Unlike its retail offerings, the new product is built specifically for businesses that deal with predictable, high-volume spending—subscriptions, advertising, software tools and cross-border payments.
With Pil, businesses can fund corporate cards using naira or stablecoins, assign controlled access to team members, set approval workflows and track spending from a single dashboard. Support for additional African currencies is expected as the product expands.
Founded in 2019 by Balogun Usman and Faturoti Kayode, and now led by CEO Emmanuel Sohe, Cardtonic says Pil was born out of frustration. As the company scaled, managing its own operational spend became increasingly difficult. Card limits changed without warning, payments failed at critical moments and foreign platforms came with high fees and little reliability.
“We spend tens of thousands of dollars every month on ads, tools and subscriptions,” one of the company’s co-founders said. “We tried multiple platforms for years because there were no better local options. Eventually, we built our own internal solution just to keep operations stable. That solution became Pil.”
The decision to raise external funding was driven by the need to build stronger infrastructure. Cardtonic says Pil requires deeper investment in compliance, liquidity and systems that can support large teams and consistent transaction volumes—something bootstrapping alone could not sustain.
The move mirrors a broader shift within Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem. As competition intensifies in consumer products, more startups are moving down the stack to build and control core financial infrastructure. Companies like Paystack and Flutterwave have expanded into payment rails and regulatory capabilities, reflecting the growing difficulty of scaling consumer-only fintech models.
Pil will operate independently from Cardtonic’s retail business, allowing the company to focus on the distinct needs of business users. The platform is scheduled to launch in January 2026, with plans to add advanced spending controls, accounting and ERP integrations, and APIs for larger organisations.
In a funding environment where pre-seed and seed deals remain scarce, Cardtonic’s raise stands out—not just for the capital secured, but for what it represents: a Nigerian fintech betting that the future lies less in flashy consumer apps and more in the infrastructure businesses rely on to operate every day.