South Africa-based application programming interface (API) fintech company, Stitch announces its plans to expand to Nigeria after raising a $2 million seed extension eight months after the team emerged from stealth and announced an initial $4M seed round.
The extension will enable the company to fast-track development, launch their solution and continue to grow the team on the ground in Nigeria, as they prepare to expand further across the continent.
“Our goal is to become the go-to partner for any businesses building financial products in Africa. Access to the infrastructure Stitch is building can better enable these businesses to develop increasingly innovative solutions. They can now move money and access critical customer account data, while saving on costs, in hours rather than months,” says Stitch co-founder & CEO, Kiaan Pillay.
Kiaan said they are excited to be super launching in Nigeria, with support from some of the most incredible fintech founders and operators globally and that they see endless opportunities in Nigeria, one of the most active markets on the continent for fintech.
After speaking with over 50 Nigerian fintech companies, the Stitch team saw an overwhelming need for a more seamless and affordable payments solution. Nigeria-born innovators like Paystack and Flutterwave have pioneered online payments acceptance, but there is a significant opportunity to optimize the experience for businesses and users. Card, the method-of-choice for online payments providers in Nigeria today, has a much higher cost to convert, particularly for businesses that rely on large customer deposits.
While the option to pay via bank transfer exists in Nigeria today, customers paying via their mobile or internet banking app must re-navigate to their bank platform to complete a transaction, resulting in a diminished user experience and significant dropoff. With Stitch, users can initiate once-off, recurring, and user-not-present bank transfers without leaving the fintech product’s existing flow – and without the overhead and high costs of a standing or debit order.
Participating investors include global fintech entrepreneurs Tom Blomfield, Co-Founder of Monzo; Matt Robinson, Co-Founder of GoCardless; Emilie Choi, President & COO of Coinbase; and Charlie Delingpole, Founder of ComplyAdvantage.
“Stitch is playing a critical role in building the infrastructure that can enable exponential growth for companies looking to scale digital finance solutions in Africa,” said Tom Blomfield, Co-founder of Monzo and GoCardless and an investor participating in Stitch’s seed extension. “I see a lot of potential in African markets, where the wave of digital finance innovation is really beginning to gain momentum, and the Stitch team is getting in at precisely the right time. The team is one of the best I’ve seen globally, and I’m excited to see them continue to grow in Nigeria and beyond.”
We recently launched in the South African market, working with Stitch as an innovative payments partner to enable a first-class payments experience on our platform. We’re excited to welcome Stitch to the Nigerian market and look forward to working alongside them and others as we continue to evolve our product,” said Pardon Mujakachi, Vice President of Strategy & Partnerships at Stitch customer Chipper Cash