Pan-African fintech startup Payday has joined Techstars Toronto Accelerator program.
Techstars is an operational investment company that assists founders and early-stage entrepreneurs scale their vision into a thriving business, beginning with the Demo Day at the end of the program where selected startups will be able to pitch to a carefully curated group of investors. The 3-month accelerator program’s goal is to provide entrepreneurs with invaluable skills, resources, and connections to a large pool of global
talent and investors.
“Joining Techstars will be a game-changer for us. This is an opportunity to work with and learn from outstanding mentors, as well as to leverage their experience, skills, and network to create a platform where all Africans, regardless of location, can enjoy financial inclusion.” Favour Ori, CEO, Payday said.
Sunil Sharma, Managing Director, Techstars Toronto said “Moreover, Payday has engineered a financial product that Africans need across the continent, and the recent traction they are seeing makes us believe that this is the start of something massive. We are thrilled to be able to co-invest with some of the best early-stage fintech and e-commerce investors in Africa.”
Payday says its inclusion in this program represents an endorsement from one of the world’s most reputable investor communities. It also emphasizes the potential of the company’s business model and its commitment to developing innovative payment solutions that will simplify how Africans move money around the world.
Techstars has 15 unicorns under its umbrella. Some of the notable ones include; SalesLoft, SendGrid, ZipLine, Chainalysis, and DataRobot, etc.
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.
Last week, the startup raised $1m pre-seed funding to build out what they believe will be the “PayPal” for Africa.
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.
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