African fintech startup Payday raises $1m pre-seed to build Africa’s PayPal
Payday, a Pan-African financial technology company has raised one million dollars to build out what they believe will be the “PayPal” for Africa.
The startup was founded in 2021 by Nigeria’s Favour Ori and kicked off its beta test in June 2021 with a cold launch in July. Within three weeks of launch, Payday successfully processed over $1.4 million in transactions.
The raise was supported by several investors including LoftyInc Capital, Microtraction, Magic Fund, Ventures Platform, Voltron Capital, CcHub Syndicate, Helicarrier Inc, Greencap Equity, Midlothian Angel Network, Emergence Capital, and Olugbenga Agboola (GB).
Other investors included; Charles Odita, Eke Eleanya, Adegoke Olubusi, Edmund Olotu (Bloc), Prosper Otemuyiwa (Eden), Dimeji Sofowora, Perseus Mlambo (Union54), Abdul Hassan (Mono), and Onyekachukwu Somtochukwu Eyisi.
Payday’s product offerings include sending and receiving money globally, getting paid by foreign employers and clients, issuing Virtual Mastercards, and paying tuition and other fees in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Payday is also used by foreign businesses such as TalentQL (TechStars), Tupelo, and a slew of others to pay their employees in Africa for a variety of services such as payroll, taxes, and compliance.
“Payday’s solution is extremely timely and it backs up Africa’s agenda of a single market. Making it seamless and easy to pay people in their local currency and through multiple checkout options is a strong boost for AfCFTA” said ‘Bosun Tijani, co-founder and CEO, Co-Creation Hub.
Temi Awogboro, General Partner at MAGIC Fund said “Magic is delighted to be an early backer of Favour and the Payday team in achieving their audacious vision of enabling swift borderless online payments services for Africa, thereby connecting its users with vast opportunities around the world. This aligns with our founders-backing-founders thesis and we are excited by the opportunity to support the team as they positively disrupt the space.”
“Africa is home to some of the most talented and ambitious entrepreneurs we see in the world today, and they are solving problems for one of the biggest markets on the planet. Sending money remains complicated, time-consuming and expensive but we believe Payday Africa has the vision to liberate Africans and the global diaspora to send and receive money quickly and affordably” said Sunil Sharma, Managing Director of Techstars Toronto.
“Ventures Platform said we are thrilled to partner with Payday as they seek to ease the difficulty with moving money around Africa and across the world; this is even more critical as remote work opportunities continue to grow for young Africans” – Kola Aina, General Partner, Ventures Platform.
“We have been really impressed with Payday’s speed to integrate and launch with Union54. They have worked tirelessly to bring a best-in-class product with a delightful design. They have a thoughtful approach to simplifying how money moves and we are delighted to support them today and for the future” added. Perseus Mlambo, CEO at Union54.
Eke Eleanya, Founder/CEO Risevest said Payday is an exciting product that makes moving money around Africa and the world super easy, and the founding team are relentless and committed to the mission.
Payday is a platform created to provide swift payments for Africans across the globe. The company says it want to be the one-stop shop for anyone looking to move money freely within and beyond Africa.
Payday is available for download on the Google PlayStore and App stores.
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