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Why this Nigerian fintech startup is getting recognized around the world

TeamApt, Fintech’s Nigerian startup, raised $ 5.5 million in capital in a Series A round led by Quantum Capital Partners. The Lagos-based firm will use the funds to expand its white-label digital finance products and focus on consumer finance with the launch of its AptPay banking application.

About TeamApt

Founded by Tosin Eniolorunda, TeamApt provides financial and payment solutions to the largest commercial banks in Nigeria, including Zenith, UBA and ALAT. For Eniolorunda, launching the startup fintech means competing with its former employer, the Nigerian technology company Interswitch. The founder of TeamApt is open to having his company go head-to-head not only with Interswitch, but also with other Nigerian payment gateway startups such as Paystack and Flutterwave, he told TechCrunch in this exclusive. TeamApt, whose name is derived from aptitude, made its way to its Serie A by generating a project revenue project for Nigerian companies, according to its CEO.

The growth of a startup

The company now has a team of 40 developers in Lagos, according to Eniolorunda, who spent 6 years at Interswitch as a developer and engineer, before founding the startup in 2015. “The 40 are out of a total of 72 employees, so the company is a major engineering company. “We built the whole IP and, of course, we use open source tools”, he said.

What does it offer?

The product offerings of the commercial banks of TeamApt include Moneytor, a digital banking service for financial institutions to track transactions with web and mobile interfaces, and Monnify, a business software suite for small business management. According to performance, TeamApt claims 26 clients from African banks and processes $ 160 million in monthly transactions, according to company data. Although it does not produce public financial results, TeamApt claimed an income growth of 4,500 percent over a three-year period. Quantum Capital Partners, an investment firm based in Lagos founded by Nigerian banker Jim Ovia, confirmed that he verified the TeamApt numbers. “Our CFO was with them for about two weeks” Elaine Delaney said.

Possible future

The results of TeamApt and the overall value proposition of the startup were taken into account in the fund’s decision to act as the sole investor in the $5.5 million round. Delaney will take a seat on the board of directors with TeamApt “as a supportive investor” he said. TeamApt plans to develop more offers based on business and the consumer. “We are starting to test many more products for merchants and consumers, where we are building payment infrastructure to connect these banks with merchants and companies,” CEO Tosin Eniolorunda said. Part of this includes the launch of AptPay, which Eniolorunda describes as “an infrastructure of payment and payment push” to “centralize all the services currently used in mobile banking applications.” The company recently received its license from the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate as a payment switch in the country.

Canada and Europe, heads up

In new markets, TeamApt is looking at Canada and Europe with a specific expansion announcement that is expected for the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Eniolorunda. The CEO of TeamApt is open about the company’s future intention to list. “The project code name for the recent funding was NASDAQ. We are clear that we have become a public company”, said Eniolorunda.
Published inStartups
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