Nigerian money transfer startup Aboki Africa has raised a round of pre-seed funding to help it expand its team and scale its product.
Launched by Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo in July of this year after a year of piloting, Aboki Africa allows users to open a virtual global bank account for free to receive and make foreign payments or convert currencies, all in one place.
The startup’s pre-seed funding round is led by Abdul Hassan, CEO of fellow Nigerian fintech Mono, and also includes Niche Capital, Ingressive Capital and other strategic investors. The capital will be invested in scaling its product and expanding its core team.
“We built Aboki Africa out of necessity. I have had personal experiences with the pain points we are trying to alleviate. People who work and do business remotely should not have to jump through hoops to receive payments. We are fixing that,” said Aghedo.
“We are proud of the team that we have built and how far we have come. It is remarkable to see how much we have accomplished with a small, passionate team, and we’re excited that we have the best partners backing us.”
Uwem Uwemakpan, VP for fund operations at Ingressive Capital, said Nigeria boasted of a large population of creative and talented young people who are looking for and engaging in legitimate activities to earn their wages in foreign currency.
“Ingressive’s investment in Aboki Africa further cements our belief that technology will help us lift African out of poverty and create numerous opportunities for the youths as well as freelancers, importers and exporters, traders, and manufacturers to easily exchange forex as well as seamlessly create foreign accounts to collect payments,” he said.
