AppZone, a Pan-African fintech software provider, announced on Monday it secured $10 million through its Series A funding round, which was led by CardinalStone Capital Advisers with participation from V8 Capital, Lateral Investment Partners, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures.
Launched in 2008, AppZone claims it delivers best-in-class products for digital core banking and interbank transaction processing with clients across seven African countries including Access Bank, GT Bank, and Zenith Bank.
“Since its inception, the company, also an alumnus of the Google launchpad accelerator, has led Africa’s fintech sector through radical innovation that resulted in a number of global firsts from the continent, including the world’s first decentralised payment processing network , the first core banking and omni-channel software on the cloud and the first multi-bank direct debit service based on single global mandates.”
AppZone further revealed that to date it has served nearly 20 commercial banks and more than 450 microfinance banks, with a yearly transaction value and yearly loan disbursement of $2 billion and $300 million. Appzone’s Co-Founder and CEO, Obi Emetarom, spoke about the investment round by stating:
“We’re excited not only to be securing a significant capital raise, but also welcoming on board some strategic investors whose support will be key to our growth journey. Today’s news allows us to scale Appzone’s products and services rapidly. For the last 12 years, we’ve worked in stealth mode, building the really complex infrastructure to power the continent’s growing digital financial services space and forging partnerships with the continent’s biggest financial institutions.”
In regards to the company’s future plans, Emetarom noted he and his team are now looking to hire from Africa’s top 1% for growth and added:
“We are seeking out gifted and audacious engineering and entrepreneurial minds, hungry to accelerate economic prosperity and tackle challenging technology with us. We are not just trying to bring African fintech on-par with the rest of the world – we exist to make our financial sector the most innovative and technologically advanced on the globe through solutions built for Africa by Africans.”