Lagos-Based Fintech Startup TeamApt Joins Dollar-Bill Nigerian Fintechs With USD 5.5 Mn Raise From Quantum Capital Partners
Nigeria’s TeamApt has joined the number of the West African nation’s fintech firms to have raised significant rounds, with its recent Series A capital reception of USD 5.3 Mn from Quantum Capital Partners – a Lagos-based private equity firm with a major focus on investing and acquiring privately-owned companies with significant presence in West Africa and in the wider Sub-Saharan.
The fintech startup which was launched in 2015, will use the raise to expand its white label digital finance products and begin to lean heavily on consumer finance with the rollout of its long-heralded banking app AptPay. TeamApt beat the odds to this Series A by generating revenue project to project from its works with various Nigerian companies.
Not Backing Down
With other fintechs in the space such as Paga, Interswitch, Flutterwave, the company recognizes the presence of significant competition, but still is pushing forwards in a headlock with these firms as well as with the founder’s former employer. Tosin Eniolorunda, who is TeamApy’s founder, had a stint at Interswitch in the past years but is looking to break barriers and enter a titan fintech battle with other Nigerian payment gateway startups.
September last year, Nigeria’s Paga raised USD 10 Mn and revealed possible intentions to spread the tentacles of its financial operations to Ethiopia, Asia, and Mexico. While Flutterwave brought their total fundraising to USD 20 Mn in November 2018, it partnered with Visa to launch the GetBarter global payment product in January. Per other African players, Kenya-based Cellulant raised USD 53 Mn in 2018, with targets to boost its African presence.
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Even with the big names, huge rounds and ambitious growth plans of its Nigerian and African competitors, TeamApt is not backing down. According to Tosin, the fintech startup will solidify its presence in Nigeria while looking to take on some European regions, with Canada at the top of their list. Per an extracted info, the founder remains either non-specific or quiet about the countries it will expand to but did reveal that going global will begin for TeamApt by Q4 2019.
So Far, So Good
TeamApt, who closed an initial deal with Computer Warehouse Group to design a payment solution for them in what was the start of the fintech’s bootstrapping, has had several significant projects with huge firms in Nigeria. Apart from their work with Fidelity Bank Nigeria, the startup is in the good books of Sterling Bank of Nigeria as they helped the financial institution develop its Sterling OnePay mobile payment app and POS merchant online platform.
TeamApt has an African bank clientele of no less than 26, processing monthly transactions of USD 160 Mn. The Lagos-based fintech is among the number of Nigerian companies who decline to produce public financial results, but a report says that its growth revenue is 4,500 percent over a period of three years. In Lagos, the startup has a team of developers comprising 40 techies, including Tosin, who himself spent six years as a developer and engineer at Interswitch.
The entire staff base totals 72, which makes TeamApt one of the major engineering companies in Nigeria, building IP and open source tools for clients. Its commercial bank product offerings include Moneytor, which is an innovative service solution for financial institutions to track transactions using web and mobile interfaces. With Monnify in its coffers too, TeamApt boasts of an enterprise software suite useful in management for small businesses.
African Solution, Universal Technology
Techcrunch reports that Quantum Capital Partners, which was founded by Jim Ovia, is giving the nod to TeamApt’s numbers. The narrative has it that the firm’s CFO sat with the fintech for a fortnight in a bid to rub minds to produce the recent capital raise. The USD 5.5 Mn development is as a result of the startup’s global value proposition alongside its results.
According to Elaine Delaney, a spokesperson from the sole investor, problem TeamApt concerns itself with, as well as the solutions they contrive, is African, “But the technology is universal, and can be applied to other markets.” Sequel to the investment, and as is the norm, Delaney will represent Quantum Capital Partners at TeamApt with a board seat, doing so as a supportive investor.
