Klasha, a Lagos and San Francisco-based company on a mission to expedite cross-border commerce from Africa to other countries, has secured an extra $2.1 million to round up its $4.5 million seed round.
The fund was funded from a consortium of international investors including Greycroft, Seedcamp, Plug and Play, Berrywood Capital, and Breega and was led by American Express (AMEX) Ventures, the strategic investment department of American Express and Global Ventures, a MENA-focused VC.
Klasha is dedicated to assisting merchants from across the world in selling online to Africa and receiving payments in native African currencies while providing extremely rapid last-mile delivery to consumers across the continent.
The startup, which was founded in 2021 and has a client base of over 45,000 subscribers, a 4x increase from last October, services enterprises and consumers through a suite of products linked by a single API. Merchants outside of Africa can accept payments from Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and Kenya using its KlashaCheckout software. They are compensated in G20 currencies such as dollars, pounds, and euros.
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Another of the startup’s products, KlashaWire, allows small merchants to pay suppliers in their native currencies, and suppliers can receive payments in their main currency within three days in these six nations. Payment Connections, a third offering, allowing retailers without storefronts to collect payments and share links with customers via email or social media.
The company confirms that merchant acquisitions are up 20% month on month and transaction volume is up 17.5 percent. Over 210,000 transactions from over 1,700 businesses have been completed by Klasha. It generates revenue from sales commissions and subscriptions paid by merchants to use the analytics platform.
Klasha’s consumer product let customers in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya to establish virtual cards, fund them with their local currencies, and send and receive money last year. Jessica Anuna, the company’s Founder, stated in an interview that Klasha would overhaul the app to let merchants such as ASOS, Zara, and H&M accept payments from African consumers.
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The app, named KlashaCart, would allow consumers to shop from various stores using naira and have their purchases delivered within 7–14 days via Klasha’s logistics arm. The platform will be available in Kenya over the next few months.
Klasha commerce Klasha commerce
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