Ghanaian fintech OZÉ raised $3 M to enhance the capabilities of its digital recordkeeping platform

OZÉ, a Ghanaian fintech firm that provides MSMEs with digital recordkeeping tools and integrated financial products, has secured a pre-Series A fundraising round of $3 million to extend the platform’s capabilities and boost access to cheap credit.

OZÉ is a smartphone software that helps small companies track sales, costs, payables, and receivables. It was first released in beta in 2018. The platform then compiles the information to generate context-sensitive suggestions and reports. The startup assesses a company’s credit risk and offers it reasonable funding from its banking partners using this data and machine learning.

OZÉ has just raised a US $3 million pre-Series A investment led by Speedinvest and includes Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, with a customer base of more than 125,000 company owners.

Through agreements with well-known commercial banks, the business will utilise the capital to enhance the capabilities of its platform and boost access to affordable loans in Ghana and Nigeria.

The number of monthly active users on the OZÉ platform increased by 1,200% last year. From Q3 to Q4 of 2021, the number of loans authorised climbed by 200 percent quarter-on-quarter.

“The last decade has seen a huge transformation in the digitisation of business. Accelerated by the pandemic, we are now seeing an even greater demand for solutions to financial challenges like accepting payments, understanding cash positions, and securing loans to increase stock for busy periods,” said OZÉ co-founder Dave Emnett.

“There has been a lot of interest in the digitisation of SMEs in Africa over the last year. We have also observed the space carefully as we believe that there is tremendous potential in building the financial operating systems for African MSMEs. We are extremely excited to partner with the OZÉ team as we believe they have the right leadership and strategy in place to build the strongest platform in this market,” said Philip Specht, principal at SpeedInvest.