Nigerian Fintech Startup, Mono Secures $2m Funding to Power Internet Economy in Africa

Nigerian fintech startup, Mono says it has raised $2 million to power internet economy in Africa.

Launched in 2020, Mono enables its partners — internet businesses and developers — to build apps that make transfers from their customers’ bank accounts instantly, help them understand their users’ cash flow with more detailed information, offer convenient credit, among other things.

The investors in this seed round, according to the firm, include Entrée Capital; Kuda’s co-founder and CEO, Babs Ogundeyi; Gbenga Oyebode, partner at TCVP; Eric Idiahi, co-founder and partner at Verod Capital; VC Lateral Capital.

This investment comes just nine months after Mono raised $500,000 in pre-seed last September and two months after receiving $125,000 from Ycombinator. The company has received a total of $2.625 million in investments.

“I’m excited to share that Mono has raised a $2M Seed round of funding from Entrée Capital (Investors in Stripe, Gusto, Kuda) and Gbenga Oyebode’s fund (TCVP), and our existing investors, Lateral Capital, also participated. Finally, Babalola Ogundeyi (CEO of Kuda Bank), and a number of incredible angel investors also joined the round,” said the company’s CEO, Abdul Hassan.

“This new capital will help us double down on our core platform (Mono Connect) and launch new products and features to ensure Mono is the most powerful — and reliable — way for businesses and developers to access financial accounts in Africa.

“Today we celebrate this new milestone with our team and partners. Tomorrow, we continue the work of expanding our platform in Africa, double down on the partners and developer experience, enhance platform capabilities, and most importantly, continue to ensure reliability.

“Finally, to the entire community, we’re grateful for the trust you’ve placed in us and continue to do so. Our mission stays the same, which is to power the internet economy in Africa.”

Mono is one of the three API fintech companies to have raised a seed investment this year. Last month, Nigerian fintech, Okra raised $3.5 million while Stitch, a South African API fintech, launched with $4 million in February.

Avil Eyal, managing partner and co-founder of Entrée Capital, said, “We are very excited to be working with Abdul, Prakhar and the entire Mono team as they continue to build out the rails for African banking to enable the delivery of financial services to hundreds of millions of people across the African continent.”