Mono, a Nigerian API fintech startup, has raised a $15 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global.
The round was joined by Target Global, General Catalyst, and SBI Investments. Existing investors, Entrée, Acuity, Ingressive, Lateral Capital, and GPIC also participated. This raise brings Mono’s total outside funding to $17.6M.
Launched in August 2020 by Abdulhamid Hassan and Prakhar Singh, Mono builds the infrastructure that powers the new set of businesses and developers building apps that require secure and reliable access to financial accounts in Africa.
Per performance, the startup claims to have processed over 200 million financial data transactions from over 270 businesses, developers, and fintechs.
The company also said that it has connected over 150,000 bank accounts in the last two months and is growing 45x year-on-year in that regard.
By the end of next year, Mono will be present in five African countries. It is already in Ghana and plans to add Kenya, South Africa and Egypt in the near future.
CEO Abdulhamid Hassan explains that Mono might complete the move to South Africa via a partnership with Absa bank this year.
There’s also a vertical expansion plan for the company as it looks to offer enterprise solutions to FMCGs, law firms — non-tech and traditional industries with the capability to command more transaction volume.
“At Mono, everything we do is primarily motivated by our customers. Customers in these countries who want to develop loan or fintech applications say they can’t do so until Mono is present,” says Hassan.
“People trust us because of how we’ve established our connection and the sort of goods we’ve produced in Nigeria, and they say that if we go to a nation, they’ll want to start there as well,” he concluded.
