South African payments startup Ozow, formerly known as i-Pay, has raised follow-on funding from Kalon Venture Partners as part of a wider Series A round that will be used to roll out new solutions and enter additional markets.
Ozow, which rebranded in April as it zeroed in on assisting SMEs with payments, was launched in November 2014 by Thomas Pays, Mitchan Adams and Lyle Eckstein, who identified a need for an efficient and secure online payment system in the local market.
The startup, which facilitates bank-to-bank automated and instant electronic funds transfers (EFTs) in a matter of seconds, has seen its processed transactions increase by 141 per cent in the past 12 months, while it has completed over one million transactions per month since March.
Having raised funding from Kalon Venture Partners in the past, Ozow has now raised follow-on funding from the company as part of a larger Series A round. In an emailed communication to shareholders seen by Disrupt Africa, Kalon chief executive officer (CEO) Clive Butkow said the startup had received numerous term sheets for the round, and was currently evaluating a number of international and local investors to complete it.
“This is a follow-on investment providing growth capital to the business,” he said. “Ozow’s EFT technology was far superior to any other solution in the market.”
Ozow, which has developed partnerships with companies such as Clickatell and Devcode in recent months, and added notable merchants such as MTN, SuperSonic, Le Creuset, Homechoice, and Flight Centre to its list, will use the funding to launch new products and enter new markets.
“Ozow’s expansion plans include entering African markets, while they consolidate and build their South African and recently Namibian market,” Butkow said.
