South African Fintech Firm Yoco Buys Web3 Startup Nona Digital

Yoco, an African payments and software firm, has purchased Nona Digital, Africa’s premier fintech and Web3 software development agency.

Yoco’s roadmap is greatly accelerated by the purchase, which brings a team of highly specialized financial product and technology professionals to the company.

Yoco has been a Nona customer since the beginning of 2019. Because of the existing ties, institutional expertise, and shared values between the two organizations, the Nona team can hit the ground running and accelerate the Yoco plan from day one.

Nona’s CEO, Mike Scott
Nona’s CEO, Mike Scott

Yoco’s CTO, Lungisa Matshoba, explains: “We are thrilled to have Nona and its staff join us at Yoco. Nona is an industry pioneer who has created some of the greatest digital banking and Web3 products in the region and around the world. All of this makes them an excellent match for the direction we’re heading and the progression of our goods. We realized after working with the team for over a year that the cultural alignment between the two organizations, as well as a shared passion for producing financial products for millions of self-employed Africans, made collaboration a no-brainer.”

Read also IFC Pours $5m Into Egypt’s Disruptech Fund For Investment In Fintech

Nona’s CEO, Mike Scott, says: “We have spent the last ten years assembling an extraordinary team and capabilities in the Fintech and Web3 sectors. This acquisition enables us to direct all we’ve built toward a vision and mission in which we believe, and which matters. It is a natural progression for a strong services company to move into product, and we are thrilled to be a part of the Yoco narrative.”

This is Yoco’s third and largest acquisition of a software development agency since 2019, following the acquisitions of Cobi Interactive in 2019 and Dado in 2021. Yoco’s staff now numbers 500 employees, with 50 percent of them focusing on product and technology.

Read also Ghanaian Fintech Dash Sets Record With $32.8M Seed To Build A Unified Payments App For Africa

Yoco is expanding its talent presence across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East as a result of its $83M Series C in 2021, and bringing entrepreneurial and experienced professionals from around the world. “We have been aggressively bringing in talent across South Africa and other markets, employing people remotely across 15 geographies and in our talent centers in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Amsterdam, Cairo, and Dubai,” Matshoba concludes.

Yoco Web3 Yoco Web3

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