Grace Ashiru
Julaya, an Ivorian fintech company, specializing in payments, has increased its pre-Series A fundraising by $5 million. The startup, which primarily uses mobile money channels to make it possible for businesses in Francophone West Africa to make B2B payments, has secured a total of $7 million in the funding round.
The pre-Series, A extension round for Julaya, was led by the European venture capital firm Speedinvest.In addition to Orange Ventures, Savio, 50 Partners, Ivorian entrepreneur Mohamed Diab, and football player Édouard Mendy, EQ2 Ventures, Kibo Ventures, the angel groups Unpopular Ventures and Jedar Capital, and the angel groups Unpopular Ventures and Jedar Capital all invested in this round.
The Julaya platform lets small and large businesses in Francophone countries send payments in bulk to other businesses and their employees who don’t have bank accounts.
Nevertheless, customers now have access to additional services, such as the prepaid Mastercard card that the startup provides for managing business expenditures.
The requirements for business travel, the ability to make purchases online, and the ease of transaction input into firm accounting systems all factored into the design of the cards.
According to Léopoldie, the provision of cards, the vast majority of which are physical (in response to client’s needs), is not the primary strategy Julaya employs to increase their income.
He asserts that using a switching cost strategy differentiates the fintech company from competitors such as YC-backed, which place a significant emphasis on cards.
More than forty per cent of Julaya’s 500 clients, which include small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), startups, large corporations, and government entities, employ the corporate cost management component of the platform.
Léopoldie observed that even though medium to large enterprises makes up most users, small businesses have shown a greater interest in fintech than larger clients.
A “Cash & Collect” solution has recently been added to the product range of the French-Ivorian firm. This solution offers “rapid and secured” cash collection, notably in the FMCG sector.
The money from in-person and field sales can be deposited into a company’s Julaya account using a mobile money agent branch, eliminating the need for the company to travel to a bank to complete the transaction.
In July of last year, Léopoldie said that fintech was handling more than $1.5 million per month. These figures have multiplied by five to exceed $7.5 million, and sales have increased by more than 500% yearly. Companies such as Jumia and Sendy are among Julaya’s clients.
Techbuild’s Take
Organizations that employ technology and digital solutions to facilitate financial transactions between parties, either digitally or without the use of actual money, are known as payment service providers (PSPs).
Africa’s increasing use of the internet and mobile phones has ushered in a time of digitization that has helped payments businesses all over the continent.
Since some of these companies were early pioneers in the computer industry, they could grow their user bases and add other languages for places where people don’t speak English. One of these businesses that is a francophone fintech is Julaya , which is based on Ivory Coast.
The sector has enjoyed significant expansion with increased investment, both of which are expected to continue. Many companies have been forced to digitalize their business processes to accommodate their customers’ shifting preferences and expectations. The amount of time customers spend testing out digital financial services, and their faith in them has increased.
Fintech companies can expand into new markets and provide financial services to the unbanked and underbanked, thanks to investments like these.
