- The South African payment platform has raised $5.2 million in seed funding.
- Revio fintech has focused its efforts on providing real-time action via different channels like SMS, Email, or Social media.
- With the $5.2 million, Revio fintech intends to expand its services to over 25 African markets.
Africa’s fintech industry is among the fastest and youngest franchises that emerged in the past decade. Its lucrative market has attracted numerous investors and innovators, each trying to gain a piece of this trillion-dollar market. In the latest development, the South African Payment platform, Revio fintech, secured a $5.2 million seed funding from QED Investors and Partech Africa. With this funding, SA’s road to dominate Africa’s digital industry is shaping up quite nicely.
Africa’s fintech industry is one of the most recent economic activities, barely two decades old. Blockchain technology, one of the primary highlights of the 4IR, has redefined how we approach technology. From its first application, Bitcoin, developers have utilized its fundamental principles of ushering in a new age of technology. Its decentralized and immutable nature has redefined several industries within Africa and brought new markets like NFT and cryptocurrency.
Revio Fintech secures $5.2 million seed funding
Its most noticeable achievement is redefining the century-old financial system, banks. Despite its feats, Africa’s fintech industry is still fragmented, with only a few startups dominating the market. With the continent shifting to a digital era, the demand for mobile payment platforms has grown, but with only a few providers. This market gap inspired Ruaan Botha to start Revio fintech to provide payment operators to businesses all over Africa.
He explains, “Digital payments are growing across Africa, projected to reach $146 billion in 2023, before considering almost $500 billion in mobile money transactions. However, there are unique market challenges and opportunities in how payments are made and collected on the continent. The most glaring is the immense fragmentation of the payments ecosystem, with more than 280 licensed payment service providers, 42 currencies, and the unique consumer payment cultures that exist.”
His zeal, determination, and implementation of new technology soon caught the eye of multiple investors. In its recent development, the South African payment platform has raised $5.2 million in seed funding to strengthen its efforts in tackling failed payment systems that cost African businesses millions. QED Investors and Partech Africa were the major investors in Revio fintech, showcasing the need for growth in Africa’s fintech industry.
Furthermore, Partech Africa has become an avid supporter of the South African payment platform, participating in its Series A and B funding. According to Nicole Dunn, Co-founder and CEO, “I think it’s a great signal for the ecosystem, not only for us but hopefully to the rest of the ecosystem. This should also encourage some investors who had committed to investing in Africa and started deploying before the downturn to follow the example that QED Investors set by coming early into a seed round, even in this current market, especially in an African context.“
Since its founding, Revio fintech has developed multiple APIs that have supported and facilitated several international transactions from its clients. In addition, it has created an order-to-cash lifecycle or end-to-end payment value chain that merchants can use to collect revenue. Its users can access over 70 payment methods and service providers, broadening their market. Dunn has stated that the seed funding will aid Revio Fintech in extending its services across Africa and hopefully beyond Africa’s shores.
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South African payment platform eyes success
Despite Africa’s fintech industry improving, different businesses in different countries have different payment methods. Generally, if a fintech startup only offers a limited number of payment methods, it limits its accessibility. This ultimately undermines its performance and the entire industry. Revio Fintech is among the few startups that have sought to expand their horizons by first expanding their capabilities.
Currently, the South African payment platform has unveiled a revenue recovery use case. They based it on the realization that technical difficulties are not the reason behind the slow progress of Africa’s fintech solution. According to their documentation, the consequences of insufficient funds or abandoned authorizations have been a significant issue for some time.
Thus, Revio fintech has focused its efforts on providing real-time action via different channels like SMS, Email, or Social media. This feature will aid in re-engaging consumers in their checkout process while providing better payment methods. Dunn said, “It’s really around bridging the merchants’ need to connect with the consumer realities. It’s been quite differentiated in the broader market context.“
Read also: Fintech investments are paying dividends, what else can Africa expect?
Entry into 25 African markets
Furthermore, the South Africa payment platform will also implement broad coverage to serve businesses that transact across different markets. This will aid in capturing more value and clientele for them. With the $5.2 million, Revio fintech intends to expand its services to over 25 African markets.
In doing so, they plan to dominate and improve Africa’s fintech industry. Dunn added, “We’re not actively aiming for a high volume of clients. Instead, we will go for very high-value clients with complex payment needs. We’ve switched off things like product-led onboarding to being able to build and dominate in enterprise sales. These companies are typically in multiple markets but are headquartered in Africa or recurring revenue businesses that are somewhat underserved and have unique risks and complexities around collecting payment tokenization and tackling high failure rates. They are the ones that benefit from Revio’s services.“
