South Africa-based fintech infrastructure firm littlefish has raised $9.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Partech, as it seeks to expand its bank-integrated merchant services platform across Africa.
Investors including TLCOM Capital, Flourish Ventures and Proparco also participated in the round, the company said on Tuesday.
littlefish provides software infrastructure that enables banks to offer digital tools to small and medium-sized businesses, integrating point-of-sale systems, payments, customer management tools and application programming interfaces into a single platform.
Its clients include major lenders such as Standard Bank, First National Bank and Absa. The company also partners with Visa to support small business onboarding.
Chief Executive Brandon Roberts said the company’s model focuses on working with banks rather than competing against them, allowing financial institutions to retain control of merchant relationships while upgrading their service offerings.
The company said its monthly recurring revenue has grown 30 times since its seed round, driven by demand from banks serving Africa’s fragmented SME sector.
littlefish plans to use the funds to grow its team, accelerate product development and expand into more than 10 African markets, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.