Yep!, a Nigerian financial super app, has secured a pre-seed fundraising round of US $1.5 million as it prepares to deploy its solution in five African nations.
Yep! is a financial super app focusing on harnessing technology to bring seamless financial services and solutions to Africans, founded last year by Olaoluwa Awojoodu, Airende Ojeomogha, and Garry Ottosen and located in Lagos and San Francisco.
Yep! Consumers, which will be available to retail customers, and Yep! Business, which will be available to MSMEs, merchants, and businesses, are the company’s main offerings. As it debuts its app on iOS and Android in five African nations — Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso – the business has acquired US$1.5 million in a pre-seed fundraising round headed by Greenhouse Capital.
By the end of 2022, Yep! hopes to have doubled its present network of roughly 100,000 merchants to over 200,000. As the firm develops its lending activities, the founders are in talks with international credit sources to extend the super-loan app’s facility to $10 million by the end of the year.
“We have secured a US$500,000 credit facility that will enable us to kick-start the provision of working capital loans to our existing merchants as we expand across the continent. As we strive to deliver on our promise of bringing financial access to all Africans and connecting Africans to the world, increasing Yep!’s lending capacity will be a key catalyst in pulling more customers and merchants into our ecosystem. Access to finance can be transformative – it unlocks opportunities among those that need it the most and has a huge impact on the wider economy,” Awojoodu said.
As part of its commitment to increase financial inclusion, Yep! will use its current merchant network, PayCentre Africa, to help rural populations who would otherwise be financially excluded get access to the formal economy. Entrepreneurs, small business owners, students, MSMEs, and merchants can use the company’s services to receive secure and quick digital access to financial solutions.
Over five million clients transacted over US$2 billion through the company’s expanding network of merchants in 2021 alone. In order to finish the loop and bank these consumers, Yep! obtained a microfinance bank licence in Nigeria, allowing the company to create accounts for customers, companies, and merchants in seconds.
Building on remittance flows to Africa from the diaspora and migrants from the area, the company is pursuing collaborations with prominent US banks and service providers to offer its goods to clients in the US.
“We are excited to support Olaoluwa, Airende and Garry as they make financial services accessible to consumers and businesses both on the continent, as well as in the diaspora. The founders are seasoned operators and we were impressed by the vision, the team and the speed of execution,” said Ruby Nimkar, partner at Greenhouse Capital.
