Microtraction Invests In Nigerian Fintech Company Wallet.ng
Nigerian venture capital firm Microtraction has announced a new round of investment in a Nigerian fintech startup Wallet.ng.
The founder of Microtraction announced this development on his official Twitter handle, and on it shared that the investment in Wallet.ng is one of three investments the firm has recently landed.
Wallet.ng was launched in 2106 to be digital payments platform that aids financial transactions. The solution allows people to send and receive money, and as well as make payments using their phone numbers. Wallet.ng also enables users to create virtual dollar cards to complete international transactions.
This is the third investment of Microtraction since its establishment last year. In June, Weetracker reported that the same firm had pumped funds into two fintech startups named CowryWise and Bitkoin Africa. With the recent development, Wallet.ng is the third fintech startup that this venture capital firm is investing in.
Wallet.ng was founded by John Oke and Joseph Benso-Aruna, and the startup aims to be a more accessible alternative to traditional banking. The company also wants to be a popular utility which will aid millennials in organising their personal finances.
John Oke, speaking on the sidelines of this new investment said that the major gap in the market is poor service delivery on the part of banks, who are in the habit of prioritizing their profits over actually meeting the individual needs of customers. The startup seeks to empower everyday customers as well as Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, by means of providing easy, constant access to loans, escrow services, and seamless subscription payments.
As of September 2017, Wallet.ng had up to 430 active users, and could boast of processing around USD 80 K after about 2,400 financial transactions.
According to Bademosi, he first heard about Wallet.ng when John Oke told him of his efforts to build a substantial alternative to conventional banking systems. Bademosi said he was impressed by the sheer ambition John’s vision held, as well as his progress. Upon disclosing that Wallet.ng hadn’t raised any money; John was encouraged by Bademosi to apply for funding via the Microtraction website. According to Bademosi, the meeting was more or less a blind date at a coffee shop, and also expressed his “extreme excitement” to have invested in the fintech company. He shared that Microtraction is of the belief that s Wallet.ng can become truly Pan-African.
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