African fintech company, Appzone Group, has closed a $10 million Series A investment round led by CardinalStone with participation from V8 Capital, Lateral Investment Partners, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures.
The company says it has raised $15 million in equity funding since its creation. The company which originated from Lagos, Nigeria, was founded by Emeka Emetarom, Obi Emetarom and Wale Onawunmi in 2008. This news was made known in an email newsletter by Techpoint.
More About AppZone
Appzone is a fintech software provider. It is one of the few companies that builds proprietary solutions for financial institutions and their banking and payments services.
The company recently announced that it has closed $10 million in Series A investment The thirteen-year-old Nigerian company will use this funding to expand operations in Africa as it is currently actve in seven countries, namely DR Congo, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Tanzania, and Senegal, serving 18 commercial banks and 450 microfinance banks.
Market Opportunity
Typically, African financial institutions depend on using foreign technology solutions to solve their problems.
But issues around pricing, flexibility and a lack of local tech support always come up as well as seamless digitization and automation of operations. This is where Appzone has found its opportunity to come into the market.
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Appzone started and has systematically increased its number of srvices over the years, with its end-user banking applications soon to be introduced.
It commenced as an innovative solution to build payment and banking solutions for the traditional banking sector through its proprietary technologyIn 2011, the company launched its first core banking product targeting microfinance institutions.
The following year, Appzone launched its first product (branchless banking) for commercial banks. It went live with its mobile and internet banking service in 2016 and launched an instant card issuance product in 2017.
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In 2020, the company launched services catered to end-to-end automation of lending operations for banks and blockchain switching.
Remarks about the funding
Yomi Jemibewon, the co-founder and managing director of CardinalStone Capital Advisers, said the firm’s investment in Appzone is further proof of Africa’s potential as the future hub of world-class technology.
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“Appzone is building a disruptive fintech ecosystem that will be the backbone of Africa’s finance industry with products across payments, infrastructure and software as a service. The impact of Appzone’s work is multifold — the company’s products deepen financial inclusion across the continent whilst providing best-fit and low-cost solutions to financial institutions. Its emphasis on premium talent also helps stem brain drain, rewarding Africa’s best brains with best in class employment opportunities”