It looks like investor Deciens Capital has found a new home in Chipper Cash, the Africa-focused fintech startup that allows you to send and receive any amount of money across Africa for free. Barely six months after pouring over $6 million into the startup, the venture capital firm has followed it on with a co-investment of $13.8 million in a Series A funding round. This is notwithstanding the fact that Deciens Capital was also part of Chipper Cash’s $2.4 seed round in 2019.
“We’ve been huge beneficiaries of the generosity and openness of this country (USA) and its entrepreneurial spirit. But growing up in Africa, we’re able to navigate [the U.S.] without the traumas and baggage our African American friends have gone through living in America,” said co-founder Ham Serunjogi, who has also announced the launch of the Chipper Fund for Black Lives targeted at giving 5 to 10 grants of $5,000 to $10,000 to people or causes who are furthering social justice reforms.
Here Is All You Need To Know
- This round of funding was co-led by Deciens Capitaland Raptor Group, with repeat support from 500 Startups and Liquid 2 Ventures .
- The startup is looking to hire 30 new staff across operations in San Francisco, Lagos, London, Nairobi and New York, Serunjogi said.
- With the round announcement, Chipper Cash also formed the Chipper Fund for Black Lives.
- Barely two years, the startup has raised $22 million in total funding, from investors such as, Australia-based Transition Level Investments, US-based VC firms Liquid 2 Ventures, One Way Ventures, 500 Startups, Deciens Capital and Catalyst Fund.
Why The Investors Invested
The recent investment had been confirmed by Deciens Capital founder Dan Kimmerling. Founded in 2012, Deciens Capital invests mostly in US-based fintech startups. The venture capital company claims to have invested in over forty early stage fintech companies since inception. Its most recent investment was on Apr 27, 2020, when Starcity raised $30M.
“Chipper Cash illustrates how the three axes of affordability, accessibility and appropriateness can help startups understand how to generate traction and uptake with low-income customers, and thereby drive business growth. The use of tech alone is not enough: Startups must carefully consider how to make a tech-enabled product that works for low-income people, given their existing devices, needs and comfort levels,” noted Catalyst Fund, one of the startup’s early investors.
Read also: Africa-focused Payment Startup Chipper Cash raises $6M for Southern Africa expansion
A Look At What The Startup Does
Founded in 2018 by Ugandan Ham Serunjogi and Ghanaian Maijid Moujaled, (two college students brought together by their academic adventures at Grinnell College, Iowa, USA) Chipper Cash provides free, interoperable payments in and between Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Rwanda, and Nigeria.
It accomplishes this by allowing customers to link their mobile money accounts (regardless of provider) to Chipper and make P2P transfers via its simple smartphone application.
After launching in October 2018, Chipper has averaged 40% month-on-month growth and already serves hundreds of thousands of users, attesting to its powerful value proposition and customer-focused design.
“We’re now at over one and a half million users and doing over a $100 million dollars a month in volume,” Serunjogi told TechCrunch, an online tech magazine.
Parallel to its P2P app, the startup also runs Chipper Checkout: a merchant-focused, fee-based mobile payment product that generates the revenue to support Chipper Cash’s free mobile-money business.
On how the startup will compete in Africa’s crowded fintech ecosystem, Serunjogi pointed to Chipper Cash’s gratis-payment structure, among other factors.
“Money doesn’t buy product market fit. It doesn’t buy ultimate success in this space,” he said.
“By offering our product for free, we’re not in a pricing war or competing on a dollar-to-dollar basis. We’re in a pure utility war on who can provide the most value to our users. We’re quite comfortable with our position, and our long-term value proposition will speak for itself over time,” Serunjogi added.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer