Nigerian fintech startup Pivo has secured $2 million in a seed found with participation from Precursor Ventures, Vested World, Y Combinator, FoundersX and existing investor, Mercy Corp Ventures.
Launched in 2021 by Nkiru Amadi-Emina and Ijeoma Akwiwu, Pivo is driven by the mission to make it easy for supply chain SMEs to make, receive and track payments with ease. The startup will also deploy the fresh funds raised into the furtherance of the actualization of its mission.
The startup currently serves about 500 SMEs as direct customers and makes revenue by charging interest on capital and fees on payments processed. Pivo Capital which is one of its products has disbursed over $3 million to SMEs and currently records a 98% repayment rate while transaction volume on Pivo Business grew over 400% between April and September this year. The startup has registered a total volume of $4.7 million from July to date.
Commenting on the fundraising, the founderssaid, “We intend to use this funding to build new products to improve transaction management and payment reconciliation for supply chains. We also plan to upgrade existing products. This will include enhanced payment capabilities for typical recurring payments specific to our customer group.
“An expansion is also in the works as we will establish operations in more locations in Nigeria and East Africa. This expansion will also apply to our team. We will find the best people, who understand our vision and have the experience and expertise, to help us achieve our growth targets.
“We launched Pivo in 2021 with our credit product, Pivo Capital. Since then we have launched Pivo Business which offers business accounts with features like invoicing and bulk payments to help SMEs manage their cash flow better. We’re focused on building an all-in-one financial services platform for supply chain SMEs and are glad to have the backing of our investors.”
Daniel Block, Investment Principal at Mercy Corps Ventures said, “When we initially invested last year, we believed that the founders’ deep logistics industry expertise and commitment to unattended supply chain SMEs would enable Pivo to rapidly carve out a deep moat in the competitive fintech lending space. As Pivo launches additional products to graduate from a pure fintech lender to a full-fledged financial services platform, we are excited to see the company deliver a full suite of financial services specifically designed for the needs of the unattended supply-chain sector SMEs they serve.”
