Chinese owned by Nigerian based payment solutions provider, GONA, has announced the completion of millions of dollars in Pre-A round of financing.
Though the amount was not disclosed, the funds will be used for product technology upgrades and team building, so says Liu Xiaojun, founder and CEO of GONA.
As reported on a Chinese news site, c.m.163.com, investors are Qingliu Capital, Jiuhe Venture Capital and Shaka VC.
GONA is fairly new in Nigeria and only currently available in Lagos on selected routes.
Initially the company’s idea was to introduce a ride-hailing business and use an Application Programming Interface (API) to ride on a local payment service provider in Nigeria. However, they couldn’t find any platform that is as effective as Alipay or WeChat Pay.
In an interview with Techpoint, GONA co-founder and Country Manager for Nigeria, Noah Gu admitted that this was the reason the company decided to go into payments.
GONA currently maintains a partnership with the UNILAG campus shuttle union, as well as a few other bus unions in Lagos.
Initial startup funding was from venture capitalists (VCs) from a couple of Asian countries. Noah Gu says that the primary focus for the company in Nigeria for the next three years is the acquisition of customers. Hence users, customers and drivers, are not charged for transactions. He claims the business does not have a working revenue model for now.
GONA app is currently available on the Google Play store for now.
