Diool, a Cameroonian fintech startup, has raised US$3.5 million in funding from the Lundin family and existing investors to scale operations, taking its total secured investment to US$4.6 million.
The startup’s platform makes it simpler for small merchants to accept payments from their customers and repay their suppliers, using many payment methods.
In the two years since the pivot, Diool has signed up more than 2,000 merchants, who have transacted more than US$120 million via its platform.
“Our next stage is growing the team and product to scale in Cameroon ahead of entering other countries.” Serge Boupda – CEO, Diool
It has payments integrations with all mobile money providers in Cameroon, and a regulatory partnership with French multinational investment bank and financial services company Societe Generale.
The startup’s chief executive officer (CEO) Serge Boupda said its goal was to build a simpler way to access financial services for small merchants in Africa.
“We’re doing Cameroon and payments first. We’ve also spent some time rebuilding operational architecture and processes, to match new payments regulations in Cameroon – a critical building block for financial services distribution in the region.”
With the funding on board, Diool is now working on expanding at home, before raising further funding and scaling internationally.
“Our next stage is growing the team and product to scale in Cameroon ahead of entering other countries,” Boupda said.
Founded in 2015, with a major pivot in 2017, Diool says it is one platform that performs multiple functions offering small merchants a way to sell prepaid recharges to their customers from a single app, but eventually pivoted into financial services aggregation after realising payment interchanges and financial services access was the pain point of its target users.
Based in Vancouver, Canada, the Lundin Foundation, in 2016, was part of Zimbian fintech startup, Zoona’s US$15 million fundraise, alongside the IFC, Omidyar Network and Quona.
Particularly, the foundation has been very much active in the French-speaking parts of Africa. In 2015, it participated in Investisseurs & Partenaires’ US$9.5 m euros fundraise alongside Rothschild Foundation, Caritas, Small Foundation.
