Funding

YMO raises €3M In Seed Round to Accelerate Financial Inclusion in West Africa

In February, YMO, a Guinean fintech startup, closed a €3 million seed round. The round was attended by several venture capital funds, including Breega and INCO Ventures.

The startup becomes one of the first in Guinea to receive such a large sum from investment funds.

“Breega, a pan-European venture capital fund dedicated to high-impact start-ups, is proud to support YMO in the deployment of its services and supports this promising young African start-up. We are convinced of the essential role played by Fintechs, in particular in creating added value and addressing the weaknesses of banking and the financial system in Africa. The support provided to YMO is part of this approach, that of strengthening its positioning in the market and being a key player in West Africa “, says Ben Marrel, CEO and one of the co-founders of Breega.

Abdoulaye Barry founded YMO in 2019 to provide an instant mobile payment service between France and Guinea. Following approval as an electronic money issuer from the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea, the start-up successfully launched its local payment service in October 2022.

YMO has nearly one million users as of today. With smartphone penetration in Africa expected to reach 70% by 2024 and mobile money transactions expected to skyrocket, YMO’s services are set to spread across West Africa, reaching African populations wherever they may be.

With the goal of banking as many people as possible, YMO is part of the worthy lineage of impact Fintechs. INCO Ventures is proud to drive this new African champion that combines ambition and financial inclusion,” added Carole Cazassus, Chief Investment Officer, INCO Ventures.

YMO has nearly one million users as of today. With smartphone penetration in Africa expected to reach 70% by 2024 and mobile money transactions expected to skyrocket, YMO’s services are set to spread across West Africa, reaching African populations wherever they may be.

YMO intends to strengthen its Tech and Compliance workforce in addition to expanding. The young company intends to hire approximately twenty new employees to expand its R&D team (developers, data scientists, UX designers, and project managers) and its compliance department in Europe and Africa.

This fundraising will allow us to continue our development on a sound basis. We intend to build a sustainable business, which meets real needs and substantially improves the lives of our customers. With the ambition to transform the daily lives of more than a billion people in Africa, the support of Breega and INCO Ventures reinforces our determination to build, together, an African champion of digital finance. All our thanks go to those who accompany the key stages of this project “, concludes Abdoulaye Barry, founder and CEO of YMO.

YMO was founded in 2019 as a financial inclusion solution for African populations on the African continent and the diaspora in France and Europe. YMO, a 100% digital solution, has made it its mission to revolutionize their daily lives by using technology for money transfers and everyday payments, based on the observation that millions of people are now excluded from the financial system.

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