Ugandan Identity Verification Startup Laboremus Lands New Funding From DOB Equity

DOB Equity and FCA Investments have invested in Laboremus Uganda, which intends to use the funds to develop its platform in Uganda and other nearby countries in the future.

Laboremus is a B2B fintech that facilitates onboarding at scale. Its platform assists banks and fintechs in verifying the identity of their customers and onboarding them as customers, among other things. This removes one of the most significant roadblocks to giving customers in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to credit.

Marius Koestler, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, laboremus
Marius Koestler, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors,laboremus

Laboremus’ solution integrates Know Your Client (KYC) data, anti-money-laundering checks, and customer engagement to facilitate onboarding for financial institutions. Standard Chartered, Equity Bank, dfcu Bank, and Wave are among the companies that have signed on as clients.

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The investment from the Department of the Interior and the Federal Communications Commission will allow the startup to expand its product offerings by adding new channels and verification services, such as: 

  • ID verification using the government ID registry, which will include biometric capabilities; and ID verification using the Federal Communications Commission.
  • Verification of customer identity and anti-money laundering screening against multiple government registries, including business names, phone numbers and land titles.
  • Account opening via WhatsApp, mobile app, and USSD requires extensive Know Your Customer (KYC) data collection.

In order to realize its aim of assisting financial institutions in providing banking services to anyone, everywhere, Laboremus will assist banks and B2C-fintechs onboard their consumers at a lower client acquisition cost. Marius Koestler, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, shared his thoughts.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. 
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh