To boost growth, payments platform acquired by Nigerian retail-tech startup Alerzo

Alerzo, a Nigerian retail-tech firm, has acquired Shago Payments, a fintech company, in order to expand on its already outstanding growth, which saw its annualised transaction volume reach US $155 million in September.

Alerzo, located in Ibadan, is an all-in-one technology and services platform that is changing the way Nigeria’s informal retail businesses operate. Retailers can better measure shop profitability by ordering merchandise, having it delivered swiftly, receiving and making cashless payments, and receiving and making cashless payments. Alerzo now works with over 150,000 unlicensed retail outlets.

In August, the company completed a US $10.5 million Series A investment headed by London-based Nosara Capital, and since then, it has more than quadrupled its sales and established a payments business. The latter was made possible by the recent acquisition of Shago Payments, a fintech firm established by Sabastine Enechi, a payments industry veteran.

Alerzo now offers a portfolio of new digital services to informal retail businesses, including mobile airtime top-up, bill payments, and peer-to-peer transfers, thanks to Shago’s integration with AlerzoPay, the company’s payments arm.

Alerzo has also grown into Nigeria’s Middle Belt and Northern areas, with offices in Abuja and Kano. Before the end of the year, the firm intends to service the majority of Nigeria.

“I started Alerzo to help my mom, a single mother who ran two informal retail stores to support me and my three siblings. Before Alerzo, she had to close her shop and travel for hours to buy the inventory to stay in business,” said Alerzo founder Adewale Opaleye.

“Women are often victims of theft because street boys know retail store operators often carry cash. I wanted to apply what I learned in China to make life better for working mothers in Nigeria.”

Most firms “speak a nice game” about financial and economic inclusion, according to Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave and Andela and a member of Alerzo’s advisory board, but then center their operations on commercially savvy megacities like Lagos or Nairobi.

“Alerzo’s focus on excluded but commercially viable commerce communities in smaller cities like Ibadan is exemplary and visionary. I’m inspired by their focus on communities that are truly excluded,” he said.