Nigerian startup Zuvy, an invoice financing and software company, has secured US$4.5 million in debt and equity funding to scale across the country.
Just out of stealth mode, Zuvy is an invoice discounting company that provides software for vendors and their buyers to settle invoices and manage payment schedules.
Operating within the fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, and supply chain sectors, vendors can request a cash advance from Zuvy on their unpaid invoices. These receivables, often payable in 30-60 days, make it difficult for the vendor to secure new contracts and expand their business.
With Zuvy, buyers have access to free invoice management software that streamlines their procurement and vendor management. Rather than spending several hours dealing with manual pen-and-paper processing, buyers utilize the Zuvy dashboard to receive invoices electronically from their vendors. Most excitingly, these buyers can then earn discounts, on their invoice payments to vendors, introducing significant cost savings.
The startup’s US$4.5 million funding round was led by TLG Capital, with participation from Next Chymia Consulting HK, Dunbar Capital, Vicus Ventures and prominent angel investors such as David Mussafer, chairman of global private equity firm Advent International.
“Our mission is to facilitate access to liquidity for African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a sector that forms the backbone of our continent’s GDP and employment. Despite their economic significance, these enterprises remain strikingly underserved financially. We firmly believe that credit availability is the most potent growth catalyst for early-stage businesses, and as such, we strive to be a pre-eminent provider of accessible, tailored credit solutions for Africa’s SME sector.” said Angel Onuoha, CEO and co-founder of Zuvy.
