Emerging B2B payment platform Waza secures $8 million funding to aid expansion drive in African fintech

Waza, an emerging market payment and liquidity platform, with operations in Ghana and Nigeria, has secured $8 million in funding to facilitate its expansion drive in the African fintech industry.

Waza secured $3 million in seed equity from institutional and strategic investors, including Plug and Play Tech Center, Byld Ventures, Norrsken Africa, Heirloom VC, Y Combinator, and Olive Tree Capital. Timon Capital provided the additional $5 million in debt finance, which will be used to pilot trade financing for the company’s major business clients, which represents an extra $371 billion in the African market.

Founded by Maxwell Obi, a co-founder of Nigerian fintech Amplify, and Emmanuel Igbodudu, a former senior engineer from Revolut, Waza is an MSB-registered entity in the US and a VASP-licensed company, with operations in Ghana and Nigeria.

Maxwell Obi, the CEO and co-founder of Waza, stated that the company would be able to go into new markets and offer cutting-edge trade financing solutions with the help of this fresh capital, further enabling African businesses to prosper internationally.

“We are excited to announce this new funding that brings us closer to our vision of transforming B2B payments and access to liquidity for businesses across the continent. By providing a more efficient settlement infrastructure, we are bridging the foreign exchange and liquidity gap and empowering African businesses to access more global trade opportunities that will drive economic growth and development in the markets we serve. We’re thankful for the support and commitment of our investors and partners, who have been essential in the delivery of this mission,” Maxwell Obi said.

Chris Muscarella, managing director of Timon Capital said, “The Waza team has deep experience around cross-border flows, and they are going after one of the bigger opportunities in frontier markets. We’re excited to finally have a chance to partner with Maxwell and the team.”

Waza joined YCombinator’s Winter 23 batch and began operating 18 months ago in January 2023. Since then, it has assisted company payments on six continents, processed over $700 million in annual payment volume, and grown at a rate of 20% each month for hundreds of firms. The additional capital would help it launch new trade finance products and expand into countries outside of Ghana and Nigeria, where it now operates.