Prakhar Singh and Abdulhamid Hassan, Mono’s co-founders. Image credit: Mono Mono, a Nigeria-based financial data startup, on Monday said it has raised a $15 million Series A round led by Tiger Global. The venture capital firm had previously invested in Flutterwave and FairMoney this year.
Existing investors Entree Capital, Lateral Capital, GPIC, Acuity VC, and Ingressive Capital also participated in the round, joined by new ones, including Target Global, General Catalyst, and SBI Investment.
Founded in 2020 by Abdul Hassan , a former product manager at Paystack, and Prakhar Singh , Mono is one of several startups – including OnePipe and Okra – that have created open banking solutions in Nigeria. Its technology enables businesses and individuals to gain access to financial information stored at commercial banks.
The Series A investment is the latest in a list of successive fundraises by Mono and brings the startup’s total raise to over $17 million.
In May, it secured a $2 million seed investment from a number of investors, including Entrée Capital, Lateral Capital, and Babs Ogundeyi, co-founder and CEO of Kuda.
Both investment rounds add to the $500,000 Mono raised in September 2020 and the $125,000 received as part of the Winter 21 cohort of Y Combinator. Pan-African expansion
Last week, Hassan confirmed Mono’s expansion to Ghana to TechCabal . It is currently in private beta with fintechs Oze and Tranzo in the West African country as well as other financial institutions, including Guaranty Trust Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank Ghana, Stanbic, Paystack, Flutterwave, and Standard Chartered.
That means Ghanaian businesses can now link the companies with their apps to fetch transactions, statements, balance, income, and identity data.
“A year ago, we launched Mono and we’ve grown rapidly since,” the company said in a statement made available to TechCabal . “Our vision to power businesses with access to financial data and direct bank payments has progressed with a lot of learning.” The launch in Ghana is part of Mono’s broader expansion plan to make its open banking solution available across sub-Saharan Africa.
Mono plans to go after other markets like Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa, all of which the startup aims to establish a presence in by next year.
Hassan told TechCrunch that Mono might complete the move to South Africa through a partnership with Absa bank this year. The Mono team. Mono was one of 10 African startups to pitch at YC’s Demo Day in March. Abdul Hassan, the […]