Fintech startup HUB2 has secured $8.5 million in Series A funding to revolutionize digital payments. Led by Pan-African investor TLcom Capital, alongside FMO, Enza Capital, and Bpifrance, this investment empowers HUB2 to expand its reach, enhance its technology, and simplify payment solutions for businesses across the region.
Founded in 2019 by Ashley Gauzere, a former telecom engineer with experience at Orange Africa, HUB2 addresses the challenges of fragmented mobile money systems. In Francophone Africa, mobile money providers and banks often operate in silos due to regulatory and systemic differences, making it difficult for merchants to scale regionally and for financial institutions to serve last-mile consumers.
Inspired by U.S. payment giant Stripe, Gauzere built HUB2 to unify these systems through APIs, enabling businesses to collect payments and manage transactions seamlessly. While the journey was not straightforward, HUB2’s strategic pivots have been crucial to its success.
Pivoting for Growth
HUB2 began by targeting independent e-commerce merchants. However, realizing the market’s limitations, the company shifted its focus to large corporates transitioning from cash to digital payments. This led to partnerships with insurance companies and eventually attracted the attention of fintechs like Djamo.
Today, HUB2 serves as the payment backbone for over 55 fintechs, including Julaya, NALA, and CinetPay. Its unified platform integrates mobile money, bank transfers, card payments, and cryptocurrency, providing comprehensive payment solutions tailored to fintech operations. This strategic focus has driven HUB2’s rapid growth, with fintech clients now accounting for 98% of its transaction volumes.
Scaling for Impact
HUB2’s growth trajectory is impressive. The company is on track to process €1 billion in transaction volume in 2024, up from €70 million in 2022. This consistent growth is fueled by month-over-month increases in transaction volumes and revenue. With a team of 35 professionals across France, Ivory Coast, and Mauritius, HUB2 is scaling its infrastructure to support its ambitious expansion plans.
In the short term, HUB2 aims to enhance cross-border payment solutions, introduce stablecoin-based remittance services, and deepen card payment integrations with Visa’s CyberSource platform. Currently operating in six countries, HUB2 plans to achieve full regional coverage within two years.
A Vision for the Future
While HUB2’s immediate focus is on fintechs, its long-term strategy includes addressing the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which represent 90% of businesses in Africa. By serving SMEs, HUB2 could emulate the success of Paystack and Flutterwave, which have scaled by catering to both enterprises and smaller businesses.
“Our goal is to offer all payment methods — from mobile money and cards to banking and cryptocurrencies — with seamless integration,” says co-CEO Jean-Rémi Kouchakji. Although its vision of a fully interoperable ecosystem is still evolving, HUB2 is making significant strides in simplifying payments across Francophone Africa.
As Eloho Omame, partner at TLcom Capital, notes, “HUB2’s achievements and partnerships are making digital payments more accessible across the continent.” With $8.5 million in new funding, HUB2 is well-positioned to lead the transformation of payments in one of the world’s most dynamic and challenging regions.
