Ivorian Fintech Startup, Djamo Raises $14m in Funding for its West-Africa Expansion
Djamo, an Ivorian fintech startup has just raised $14 million in funding from the famed accelerator, as well as from three lead investors — Enza Capital, Oikocredit and Partech Africa — and other participating investors, including Janngo Capital, P1 Ventures, Axian and Launch Africa.
Founded by Regis Bamba and Hassan Bourgi, Djamo aims to democratise financial access across the banking and mobile money sectors by creating interoperability between banks and mobile money, allowing customers to access a full range of financial services. Its objective is to give hundreds of millions of people access to simple, inexpensive, mobile-first banking. Its main concentration is on French-speaking markets, where fewer than 25% of adults have bank accounts.
To achieve this goal, Djamo has teamed up with local banks to provide frictionless mobile-first services. The company’s first product is a debit card with Visa technology. Some of its other services include peer-to-peer virtual accounts for transactions, a tool to collect salary, and an autosaving product that provides advice on users’ financial goals.
Last February, Djamo announced that it got accepted into Y Combinator, the first from Ivory Coast. Months later, the two-year-old fintech has raised funding to help reinforce Djamo’s vision that the distribution of financial services throughout Francophone Africa is fundamentally transitioning toward applications.
Speaking on the investment, one of the investors, Tidjane Deme, the general partner at Partech Africa, said, “Francophone Africa offers a large integrated market, with [a] fast-growing demand for frictionless services from a new cohort of digital-native young adults. We are excited to join forces with high-calibre local investors who bring sector and regional expertise to enable Djamo to unlock this opportunity.”
The new funding will help the startup advance its services and expand to other new francophone African markets. It will also enable the startup to expand its product offerings to include investments and lending to empower its customers across the region further.
