Sudo Africa, a fintech that provides a card-issuing API for developers and businesses in Nigeria, has raised $3.7 million in pre-seed funding.
San Francisco-based Global Founders Capital (GFC) led the round. Participating VCs include Picus Capital, LoftyInc Capital, Rallycap Ventures, Kepple Africa, Berrywood Capital, ZedCrest and Suya Ventures.
Several African fintech founders such as Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Ham Serunjogi and Odun Eweniyi are investors in the company too.
Like many API-led fintechs, card-issuing API (pioneered by the likes of Rapyd, Ayden and even Stripe globally) is increasingly getting attention from investors who think it’s the next big thing in a sector that has attracted the most VC dollars in Africa.
Aminu Bakori and Kabir Shittu, founders of Sudo Africa, told TechCrunch that the opportunity to build Sudo was due to a problem they faced while attempting to issue cards at their previous startup: a mobile wallet system allowed users to aggregate existing financial institutions into a single platform and perform transactions.
“At some point, we wanted to issue cards and worked with one of the local banks in Nigeria,” said CEO Bakori. “They got to print up to 1,000 cards, but it took a lot of time and none of them functioned because the bank wasn’t able to provide any APIs for us to either manage the cards or even control the usage of those cards. That was the first time we came around, thinking about how to issue cards.”
The fintech landscape, as described by Bakori, is one where while startups create silo interfaces that allow their customers to send or receive funds between themselves, issues always arise when global financial systems come into play.
For instance, a mobile wallet or local card in Nigeria trying to make a purchase on Amazon is always a dreadful experience. But with the introduction of virtual dollar cards in a few digital banks and fintech platforms, this has become less of an issue. Card-issuing API fintechs such as the Kaduna-based Sudo Africa are behind this technology.
