Julaya, an Ivorian fintech, has raised $2 million to help businesses in West Africa digitize their payments

Julaya, a fintech startup based in Ivory Coast that offers businesses an online platform for sending payments to mobile money and mobile banking wallets, has secured $2 million in pre-Series A funding to help it grow and expand its offering across West Africa.

In 2018, the startup raised $250,000, and in 2019, it raised $550,000.

The fintech startup received a pre-Series A investment of $2 million in June to fuel its next stage of growth.

Orange Ventures and MFS Africa Frontiers are among the investors, as are VC companies Saviu Ventures, Launch Africa Ventures, and 50 Partners Capital, as well as European and African business angels.

“Fintech’s ecosystem in Africa is marked by its competitiveness and tremendous dynamism,” said Habib Bamba, head of transformation for digital and media at Orange Ivory Coast. Orange Group plans to join in this surge by backing fintechs like Julaya through its technology investment fund. The idea is to find local technology heroes who can help usher in a more digital and responsible world. With the help of the Orange Digital Centre team, this financing will enable Julaya to expand and conquer West Africa,” he stated.

“Having worked in the early mobile money market, we recognized that telecom carriers’ high consumer penetration would help businesses looking to reach out to the unbanked and make quick payments. Julaya is a tool that helps businesses streamline their accounting. “By digitizing their payments to workers and suppliers, they improve their operational efficiency,” Léopoldie explained.

Julaya plans to use the funds to expand its business in Ivory Coast, expand into West Africa (beginning with Sénégal), and create new products.

Interfacing new digital wallets into its disbursement offering and upselling with a better user experience, such as integrating with customers’ ERP systems, are examples of the latter.

Julaya, founded in 2018 by Mathias Léopoldie and Charles Talbot, has a customer base that includes SMBs, large corporations, and government organizations.

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Lidya, a Nigerian fintech stratup, has raised $8.3 million to expand its operations