Bankly, Nigerian Fintech Startup Raised $2 Million in Seed Round

Bankly, a fintech startup that focused on digitizing cash for the Nigerian unbanked population, announced it has raised $2 million in a seed round.

The company founded by Tomilola Adejana and Fredrick Adams in 2018, is digitizing the popular traditional thrift known locally as esusu or ajo collection for over 100 million adults in Nigeria.

“The first phase is building agent networks which is good but that’s not the goal,” CEO Adejana stated. “Just in the same way mobile inclusion happened, you need to then focus on acquiring customers who, after transferring cash to their mobile accounts, use it to buy airtime or make payments. We call that the three-phase process. The distribution first, then focusing on the consumer, after that full digitization. This is how we reach financial inclusion.”The fintech startup operates like a traditional bank with fewer revenue, assets, customers and operational costs. However, because Bankly does not spend a lot on acquiring customers and building physical presences like Kuda Bank, it can pass those costs to customers as interest and still report decent margins going forward.

The company presently has 15,000 agents across the country, up from 2,000 in 2020.

Speaking on finding investors, Adejana said “We’ve had to be patient to make sure that we were talking to people who deeply understand the problem and are passionate about solving it and are not about getting returns as soon as possible,” she said.

The seed round was led by Vault, the holding company of VANSO, a fintech that was sold to Interswitch in 2016, Plug and Play Ventures, Rising Tide Africa and Chrysalis Capital.

“Given our over twenty years experience in Nigeria’s fintech industry and previous exits, we strongly believe that Bankly understands the nuanced needs of this market — not to mention the team, strategy, and technology — to succeed in bringing affordable financial services to the unbanked. We are delighted to participate in this financing round as Bankly moves into its next growth stage,” Idris Alubankudi Saliu, partner at Vault said.

According to Adejana, the startup plans to grow its customer base to 2 million unbanked Nigerians in the next three years. She explained that the goal is to deepen the Central Bank of Nigeria’s goal of increasing people in the financial system from 60 percent to 80 percent by 2025.

“We’re thrilled to have closed this milestone fundraise and to have such seasoned fintech investors who understand the market join us on this journey to bank Nigeria’s unbanked. Now we have built the agent network and are poised to serve customers directly via offline and online channels. Partnerships, collaboration, and a deep understanding of the needs of the unbanked will be vital to our success,” said Adejana.