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Nigerian Reward-based Loyalty Startup ThankUCash Lands $5.3m In Seed Funding Round

January 10, 2022

ThankUCash, a platform launched in 2018 by Connected Analytics, which offers loyalty, deals and rewards services, has finally closed its seed round at $5.3 million. Last year, the startup announced an undisclosed seven-figure seed.

The Lagos-based startup’s seed round was co-led by VC firms 500 Global and Unicorn Growth Capital. Expert Dojo, Predictive VC, SaaS Growth Ventures, Betatron Venture Group, and Accelerex Holdings were among the participants. Individual investors such as Andrew Dell, the former CEO of HSBC, and Craig Fenton, the UK director of Google, were also there.

The money will be used to grow the company’s operations in Nigeria, where it has offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Abuja, as well as in Ghana and Kenya. It also intends to expand its product line and hire additional people.

Why The Investors Invested

Nigeria, and possibly the whole of Africa, apart from North Africa (and more particularly Egypt) does not have as many startups doing what ThankUCash is doing; and so it makes more sense that ThankUCash has fewer competitors and that investors are buying in. In Egypt, startups like DSquares and Zeal Rewards are making headways with their reward-focused applications. The sector is quite niche but profitable, which explains why DSqaures recently claimed it now has a network of 100 million active customers, as well as 1,700 partners with over 11,000 outlets across different sectors in Egypt, Jordan, Romania, Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Saudi, and UAE. DSquares is backed by heavyweight investors such as Algebra Ventures.

An interesting fact about the investors involved in this round of financing is that they come from diverse backgrounds. While Hong Kong-based Betatron Venture Group invests mostly in Asia-focused startups, Mauritius-based Accelerex Holdings, with its latest $20m fund, focuses on African fintech startups. 500 Startups, on its own, has invested more in North African startups than elsewhere on the continent. San Francisco-based Predictive VC is perhaps the only venture capital firm that invests in data analytics startups like ThankUCash. Investments from 500 Startups and Brandon Drew are follow-ons, confirming that the startup has remained attractive to them. 500 Startups’ interests in ThankUCash started with the startup’s participation in its 2020 accelerator program, in which it was the only African startup selected to join its 26th accelerator batch.

ThankUCash also claims to have over 600,000 users and 1,000 stores on its network thus far. It also claims to have handled more than $80 million in transactions.

Lastly, CEO Simeon Ononobi is himself a serial founder. He had previously founded SimplePay, a fintech platform that allows users with an e-mail address and a bank account to securely and conveniently send and receive payments online, reminiscent of PayPal. SimplePay’s demise remains unannounced to date. Simeon had equally cofounded MyAds Global, an Adtech startup for mobile advertising on incoming call screens of mobile phones. The idea of ThankUCash must have been inspired by the latter.

Investment into ThankUCash was made through its parent company, Connected Analytics, headquartered in San Francisco, in the United States.

“Since going through 500 Global’s accelerator in 2019, we’ve been impressed by Simeon and the ThankUCash team’s progress in implementing a rewards system that works for Nigerian consumers, regardless of cash or credit or online or offline payment,” said the principal. “It’s a win-win for businesses and banks, too, as TUC gives them the tools and data they need to grow,” Amit Bhatti, the principal at co-lead investor 500 Global said.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Founded in 2018 by Simeon Ononobi (CEO), Madonna Ononobi (COO), Suraj Supekar (CTO), and Harshal Gandole (joined later as Senior VP-Tech), ThankUCash engages and rewards customers of Thank U Cash partner retailers and service owners.

Merchants pay ThankUCash a charge on every purchase made in their stores, which is how the company gets money. ThankUCash, for example, receives a 1.5 percent commission for each customer it brings into the business to redeem a 5% reward item. The Lagos-based firm also charges commissions on deals and wants to charge a “substantial onboarding fee” to companies that wish to use its APIs for services like buy now, pay later.

To date, brands such as Dana Airlines, Enyo retail, ThankUCash have been able to sign (a fuel retail company). Ononobi claims that the startup has been able to help Enyo Retail expand to almost 100 locations today from 4–7 locations in 2019.

The startup also claimed it has entered into strategic alliances with major banks and financial institutions.

“We’ve signed partnerships with some banks, and one of them could boost our user base to hit 2 million once finalised. We’ve also partnered with Africa’s largest fintech firm which will also expand our reach to up to 40 million customers,” Ononobi said.

“We are working to expand to airports, where customers can get rewards when shopping across the nation. We are also working to help online merchants integrate our API to their platform,” he said.

After growing as a company, Ononobi and his team now want to embark on a more difficult task: creating infrastructure for businesses who wish to provide similar services.

“We are creating solutions that help SMEs succeed while increasing consumer buying power and opportunities. We want to build an infrastructure for rewards, loyalty, deals, buy now, pay later, cashback,” Ononobi said in a statement.

“Cashback was our low hanging fruit and an entry point. We’re still going to go into deals, couponing, gift cards, buy now, pay later, anything that will help the business grow, but at the same time, allowing the consumer increase in opportunities of buying.”

It also plans to introduce “Buy Now, Pay Later” services.

Aaron Tindiseega has been hired to manage the 45-man team’s growth into Kenya and the rest of Eastern Africa. The Ugandan expert has worked for Uber, Standard Chartered Bank, and Stanbic IBTC, among other banks and tech businesses. Kiki Anku, who has worked at Apple and a few startups, will lead the company’s development into Ghana.

ThankUCash loyalty ThankUCash loyalty ThankUCash loyalty

Nigerian Reward-based Startup ThankUCash Secures Seven-figure Pre-Series A Funding Round

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

Nigerian Reward-based Startup ThankUCash Secures Seven-figure Pre-Series A Funding Round

February 11, 2021

Simeon Ononobi, Chief Executive Officer of ThankUCash

When Simeon and Madonna Ononobi (husband and wife) teamed up to form a digital platform that would help businesses reward their customers in the early days of 2018, they did not know that they wouldn’t have to wait for more than five years before ThankUCash, the product of that team effort, gains momentum. Apart from previously securing series of pre-seed and seed investments, the startup has now secured more than $1m million from leading investors, including 500 Startups, which apart from investing in the Nigerian fintech startup, Aella, focuses mostly in North Africa.

“We’ve created an API from the ThankUCash product, even banks use it today to reward customers and get them to enjoy discounts, rewards, across multiple merchants,” said Simeon Ononobi, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer.
Read also:Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Target African Agritech Startups In New Grant Funding Round. Applications Are Open.

“Imagine earning rewards from your barbing saloon, your closest restaurants, your supermarket and being able to use your rewards at any of these businesses. It becomes more valuable for you. You’re one customer but you have ten businesses that you patronise because they are all rewarding you,” he said.

Here Is What You Need To Know

This round was led by Hong Kong’s Betatron Venture Group, with participation from Mauritius-based Accelerex Holdings, as well as San Francisco-based Predictive VC and 500 Startups. Angel investors such as Craig Fenton, Head of Strategy and Operations for Google UK; Brandon Drew, former 500 Startups mentor and previous investor in ThankUCash; among others, also joined in the round.

And although the exact amount of this investment was not disclosed, all the venture capital firms involved in this round had previously participated in deals of more than $2 million.

With the funding, ThankUCash will expand its team as well as optimise its technology in order to enable it execute on its latest strategic partnerships and prepare it ahead of future Series A investments which are due soon.

The startup had previously raised $410k in funding, its last being in August 2020, when Brandow Drew, angel investor in this round, invested an undisclosed amount in the startup. Other backers include Ventures Platform, Microtraction, Google Launchpad Accelerator, and Expert DOJO,

Why The Investors Invested

Nigeria, and possibly the whole of Africa, apart from North Africa (and more particularly Egypt) does not have as many startups doing what ThankUCash is doing; and so it makes more sense that ThankUCash has fewer competitors and that investors are buying in. In Egypt, startups like DSquares and Zeal Rewards are making headways with their reward-focused applications. The sector is quite niche but profitable, which explains why DSqaures recently claimed it now has a network of 100 million active customers, as well as 1,700 partners with over 11,000 outlets across different sectors in Egypt, Jordan, Romania, Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Saudi, and UAE. DSquares is backed by heavyweight investors such as Algebra Ventures.

An interesting fact about the investors involved in this round of financing is that they come from diverse backgrounds. While Hong Kong-based Betatron Venture Group invests mostly in Asia-focused startups, Mauritius-based Accelerex Holdings, with its latest $20m fund, focuses on African fintech startups. 500 Startups, on its own, has invested more in North African startups than elsewhere on the continent. San Francisco-based Predictive VC is perhaps the only venture capital firm that invests in data analytics startups like ThankUCash. Investments from 500 Startups and Brandon Drew are follow-ons, confirming that the startup has remained attractive to them. 500 Startups’ interests in ThankUCash started with the startup’s participation in its 2020 accelerator program, in which it was the only African startup selected to join its 26th accelerator batch.

CEO Ononobi also revealed some striking data: that the startup has grown its user base to 238k (down from 800k users, shame to Covid-19), and that it has processed over $40m worth of transactions, just two years after it was launched.

Lastly, CEO Simeon Ononobi is himself a serial founder. He had previously founded SimplePay, a fintech platform that allows users with an e-mail address and a bank account to securely and conveniently send and receive payments online, reminiscent of PayPal. SimplePay’s demise remains unannounced to date. Simeon had equally cofounded MyAds Global, an Adtech startup for mobile advertising on incoming call screens of mobile phones. The idea of ThankUCash must have been inspired by the latter.

Investment into ThankUCash was made through its parent company, Connected Analytics, headquartered in San Francisco, in the United States.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Founded in 2018 by Simeon Ononobi (CEO), Madonna Ononobi (COO), Suraj Supekar (CTO), and Harshal Gandole (joined later as Senior VP-Tech), ThankUCash engages and rewards customers of Thank U Cash partner retailers and service owners.

The startup charges a 30 percent commission from the rewards of a client, a monthly SaaS fee of about $50 from retailers using its predictive analytics software, and an upfront collaboration fee for partners looking to use the platform as well as other future transactions commissions.

To date, brands such as Dana Airlines, Enyo retail, ThankUCash have been able to sign (a fuel retail company). Ononobi claims that the startup has been able to help Enyo Retail expand to almost 100 locations today from 4–7 locations in 2019.
The startup also claimed it has entered into strategic alliances with major banks and financial institutions.

“We’ve signed partnerships with some banks, and one of them could boost our user base to hit 2 million once finalised. We’ve also partnered with Africa’s largest fintech firm which will also expand our reach to up to 40 million customers,” Ononobi said.

“We are working to expand to airports, where customers can get rewards when shopping across the nation. We are also working to help online merchants integrate our API to their platform,” he said.

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

Nigeria’s ThankUCash, and Kenya’s OkHi accepted into Hong Kong accelerator, secure funding

September 29, 2020

The Hong Kong based Betatron accelerator funding for startups has accepted two African startups, the Kenyan digital addressing startup OkHi and Nigerian multi-merchant rewards platform ThankUCash for a secure access to mentorship and funding. Established in 2016, Betatron is an investment firm that runs an annual four-month accelerator programme to help companies expand their operations into Asia and secure funding.

The programme provides up to US$500,000 funding for each selected startup, as well as mentorship and guidance to ensure a seamless expansion process.

Having received 2,500 applications for its latest cohort, Betatron has selected nine startups to take part, including two from Africa. They are Kenya’s OkHi, which provides a digital addressing network that turns a user’s mobile phone into their physical address, and Nigeria’s ThankUCash, which has launched a rewards and loyalty platform that helps customers access deals and businesses better understand consumer spending patterns.

The investment in OkHi forms part of the US$1.78 million funding round the startup announced recently. Speaking on the development, Simeon Ononobi, Chief Executive Officer of ThankUCash said that his organization is proud of the journey so far and acceptance into the Betatron Cohort 6 Accelerator Programme further shows that we are on the right path as a company. Adding that “our mission of helping businesses prosper by connecting them with customers is clearly a shared one regardless of geography and this has reflected in the traction we have receiving from investors and partners who are eager to be a part of our story and this continues to fuel our commitment to our goals.”

The other seven startups in the programme hail from France, India, the Philippines, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Nigerian Startup ThankUcash Secures Funding From Global VC, 500 Startups’ Mentor, Brandon Drew

August 21, 2020

Good news for Nigeria’s leading multi-merchant rewards company ThankUcash which has announced that serial investor and founder Brandon L Drew has joined the company as an investor and advisor.

“Brandon has an unquestionable depth of experience and knowledge not many people can boast of, which is pivotal to the current phase we are in. It is a pleasure to have him onboard and we are sure to achieve great things together with him,” CEO Simeon Ononobi said.

Here Is What You Need To Know

The latest development comes as Google executive Craig Fenton (Strategy and Operations Lead for Google’s business in UK, Ireland, and Southern Europe) also joins ThankUCash’s board at a time the company is gearing for local and international expansion.

Why The Investor Invested

Brandon L Drew is currently the co-founder and General Partner at Saas Growth Ventures, a San Francisco based venture fund. He has 20+ years experience in the SaaS B2B space having been a co-founder/co-founding employee of 5 organizations with 3 exits to date.

Some of the companies Drew has served on as advisor and board member includes Vidcaster, Signal Zero, Lotadata to name a few.

He is also a mentor at the renowned 500 Startups, Highway1 IoT and an active speaker at various star-ups competitions globally. He has also lectured at Universities and is currently mentoring on Entrepreneurship at University of California and the California Polytechnic State University SLO.

“I have been exceptionally impressed with the entire executive team at ThankuCash. They have had great insight into the marketplace and their speed of iteration on the product is like none I have seen before. I look forward to seeing their product grow well beyond the current geo and move towards a global brand,” Brandon Drew said while sharing his excitement on joining ThankUCash ’s board.

A Look At What ThankUCash Does

ThankUCash, founded by Madonna Ononobi, Simeon Ononobi and Suraj Supekar in 2018, helps merchants grow revenue by connecting them to customers within and outside of their locations while retaining acquired customers using a data analytics-powered reward system where customers earn cash rewards for every transaction made both offline and online. The startup currently operates out of three locations Lagos, San Francisco and Pune. In 2020, ThankUCash was the only African startup admitted into the 26th batch of 500 startups, one of the world’s most renowned accelerator programs.

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