South African fintech startup LittleFish, which enables banks to better serve SMEs, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from TLcom Capital and Flourish Ventures to help it scale.
Co-founded in 2021 by Brandon Roberts and Miod Davith Kahwa, LittleFish aims to bridge the financial services gap for SMEs across Africa via a comprehensive digital platform that enables banks to better serve SMEs.
By partnering with financial institutions, the startup provides a range of services, streamlining financial operations, offering digital payment processing, and facilitating access to credit. The partnership model allows banks to retain their SME clients while offering a more agile and customer-focused solution.
The startup is now planning to scale its operations after securing an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by TLcom Capital, which makes its first investment foray into South Africa, and also featuring Flourish Ventures.
TLcom Capital, which in April announced the final close of its US$154 million Tide Africa II early-stage fund, said in a blog post that it had been impressed by three things about LittleFish after first meeting the team in late-2022.
“Firstly, Brandon’s courage and ambition to leave a corporate job in enterprise software to start a high-growth technology venture early in his career. Secondly, the team has a deep understanding of the fintech industry. Their vision to empower banks to counter the rise of fintechs by more efficiently acquiring and better servicing small and medium-sized companies was clear from day one,” the firm said.
“Finally, Littlefish’s partnership with Visa is significant because it gives the company a major competitive edge by enabling it to launch with solid tie-ins with Visa’s partner banks. Visa has clearly also seen the massive value in the company’s mission and product.”
