There aren’t many licensed fintech startups in Ghana compared to Nigeria, but Goodsoil, the London and Accra-based venture capital firm, is taking strategic positions in the few that exist. After leading a $940k funding round in Zeepay, Ghana’s fintech company to pick up the country first ever Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMI) license in December, 2020, the venture capital firm is back again, this time pouring $200k seed in another Ghanaian fintech startup BezoMoney.
“Our goal from the start has been to help the unbanked to gain upward social mobility. There are a lot of people in the informal sector in Africa and hardly do their lives improve in any way from year to year. Through our research, we realized that this is a result of their limited access to formal financial services which stems from their inability to build verifiable credit histories even though they save and access credit through informal financial schemes. BezoMoney exists to change that. We are committed to growing with our customers and meeting their financial needs with tailored products and services. We started focusing on young people as well because they were reaching out to us every day through calls and an email requesting to use our products, so we expanded our offering to include them,” Mubarak Sumaila, co-founder of BezoMoney said.
Here Is What You Need To Know
- BezoMoney will use the investment to acquire the Payment and Financial Technology Service Providers (PFTSP) license in Ghana. The funding will also help the company develop and launch new products, such as BezoCredit, an interest-free credit product, and BezoInvest, a financial investment product. Users will be able to invest their money through BezoInvest.
- Additionally, the funds will be used to increase the company’s user base, team, and scale around the world.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Based in London and Accra, GOODsoil’s portfolio is diverse, and extends across the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa — with a strong focus on Fintech. The company makes up Crunchbase’s list of less than 100 Female Founded Investors active in Africa, and one of only 125 Female Founded Venture Capital Investors with Investments in England.
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“Mubarak and his BezoMoney team are providing the unbanked and young people with easy access to powerful and flexible wealth-generating tools that are typically hard to access. We are excited to partner with BezoMoney to accelerate their growth and assist them in their scale,” Orla Enright of Goodsoil VC commented on their investment into the African fintech startup.
Founded in 2017 by Charmaine Hayden, Orla Enright, Ashley Thompson-MacCarthy and Richard Mensah, and based in London and Accra, GOODsoil VC aims to fund 50+ startups in the next 5 years, while also building longterm relationships with investors who are equally passionate about tech innovation, early-stage companies and investment in Africa.
“GOODsoil will remain bullish on Africa for the foreseeable future, as we scale our portfolio and invest in new exceptional startups. We look forward to shortly confirming a $67.5m fund we are currently raising,” said Hayden.
A Look At What The Startup Does
BezoMoney, a fintech company established in 2019, creates and distributes digital financial services and goods for unbanked and younger customers.
Mubarak Sumaila and Diana D. Osei created the creative fintech out of the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) program.
Since its founding, the company has developed products that offer social mobility to the unbanked and digitize informal savings group transactions.
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“BezoMoney’s vision is to become a digital bank for the unbanked as well as the younger generation; a digital bank that provides financial products and services that span across the entire financial spectrum, meeting the needs of its users on their journey to financial stability.”
BezoSusu, the company’s flagship product, is a digital-personal and community savings product that helps users in the informal sector meet their savings goals. BezoSusu is based on USSD and is integrated with Mobile Money to enable users to transact using their Mobile Money wallets, according to the fintech.
BezoMoney collaborates with established financial institutions to offer its services and goods.
To meet regulatory requirements, BezoMoney partners with existing financial institutions and mobile operators to provide its services and goods.
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
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