South African M-PoS Startup Yoco Raises USD 16 Mn In Series B Led By Partech
Cape Town-based Point of Sale payments provider Yoco has raised a Series B round of USD 16M led by Partech with participation from Orange Digital Ventures, FMO (The Dutch Development Bank) and existing Series A investors Quona Capital and Velocity Capital.
With this round, the company’s total investment comes up to USD 23M. Cyril Collon, General Partner at Partech and Co-lead of the Partech Africa Fund will join Yoco’s Board.
As per the press release sent to WeeTracker, Yoco will leverage its Series B to grow its network of small business merchants, invest in product development, operational scalability and attracting top-tier fintech talent. Since its official launch in 2015, the company claims to have grown its merchant base to more than 27 K.
Katlego Maphai, Yoco Co-founder and CEO added: “We built Yoco on the key pillars of access and trust. Transforming the long and prohibitive process of applying for a card machine into a simple consumer-like product purchase that can happen online or at the store in minutes.”
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Yoco clearly identified a glaring gap in the South African payment sector where, 7% of small businesses accept card payments, despite a card penetration of 75%. The company has also run its pilot in two more Sub-Saharan markets and has plans to be a pan -African player in the payments sector.
Cyril Collon, Partner at Partech, said: “Yoco has built a product set and quality operations placing it as a top fintech company not only in South Africa but also globally. We are excited to have Yoco as the second investment from our Africa fund. Consumer spending in Africa amounts to over USD 1.4 trillion, much of which is driven by small businesses. Yoco’s ability to use technology to solve real problems for African small businesses at scale makes it a unique implementation of our investment strategy.”
Partech had launched a USD 70 Mn Africa fund early this year and made an investment in Nigerian Tradedepot in April.
