Nigerian financial super app Yep! has raised a US$1.5 million pre-seed funding round as it launches its solution in five African countries.
Founded last year by Olaoluwa Awojoodu, Airende Ojeomogha, and Garry Ottosen, and headquartered in Lagos and San Francisco, Yep! is a financial super app focused on leveraging technology to deliver seamless financial services and solutions to Africans.
Its core offerings include Yep! Consumers, which will be available for retail customers, and Yep! Business, open to MSMEs, merchants and enterprises. The startup has raised US$1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Greenhouse Capital as it launches its app on iOS and Android in five African countries – Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso.
Yep! has ambitious growth plans of doubling an existing network of about 100,000 merchants to over 200,000 by the end of 2022. The founders are also in discussions with international credit providers to increase the super-app’s debt facility to US$10 million by the end of this year as the company scales its lending operations.
“We have secured a US$500,000 credit facility that will enable us to kick-start the provision of working capital loans to our existing merchants as we expand across the continent. As we strive to deliver on our promise of bringing financial access to all Africans and connecting Africans to the world, increasing Yep!’s lending capacity will be a key catalyst in pulling more customers and merchants into our ecosystem. Access to finance can be transformative – it unlocks opportunities among those that need it the most and has a huge impact on the wider economy,” Awojoodu said.
As part of its mission to boost financial inclusion, Yep! will leverage its existing merchant network, PayCentre Africa, to ease entry into the formal economy for rural communities, who would otherwise be financially excluded. The company’s services enable entrepreneurs, small business owners, students, MSMEs, and merchants to gain safe and easy access to financial solutions digitally.
In 2021 alone, over five million customers transacted more than US$2 billion through the company’s growing network of merchants. In an attempt to close the loop, and bank these customers, Yep! secured a microfinance bank licence in Nigeria, enabling the company to set up accounts for customers, businesses, and merchants, in a matter of seconds.
The firm is exploring partnerships with leading US banks and service providers to expand its products to customers in the US, building on remittance flows to Africa from the diaspora and migrants from the region.
“We are excited to support Olaoluwa, Airende and Garry as they make financial services accessible to consumers and businesses both on the continent, as well as in the diaspora. The founders are seasoned operators and we were impressed by the vision, the team and the speed of execution,” said Ruby Nimkar, partner at Greenhouse Capital.
