Payday has announced a $3M seed round led by Moniepoint Inc with participation from HoaQ, DFS Lab’s Stellar Africa Fund, Ingressive Capital Fund II and angel investors, Dare Okoudjou, Founder and CEO of MFS Africa, and Tola Onayemi, CEO of Norebase. This recent investment has brought Payday’s total investment to date to $5.1m.
The company says the new capital raised will be deployed to secure operational licensing in the United Kingdom and Canada while building out operations in the United Kingdom, where the company has recently been incorporated. Funding will also be used to boost talent acquisition as the startup’s team complement expands from 35 to 50 employees, as Payday looks to further fuel the future of work through borderless payment alternatives in major currencies.
The round also sees the expansion of the Co-Founding team with the addition of Elijah Kingson – Payday’s current CPO who previously led product design for Premium and subscription products at British-Lithuanian neobank Revolut. Yvonne Obike, the company’s current COO, has also joined the Co-Founding team. Her work with Nigeria’s Bank of Industry saw her drive MSME growth, societal rehabilitation, economic recovery and development to local, national and international stakeholders. The team has also brought on board former Goldman Sachs and Expedia Product Manager, Sean Udeke as Head of Products.
Launched in June 2021 by Favour Ori, Payday, the first Rwandan company in history to join Techstars, was developed to support African remote workers, freelancers and digital professionals with frictionless, borderless payments, enabling global payment processing from over 130 countries. The startup permits those on the continent and in the diaspora, to send and receive money in USD, GBP, Euros and 20 other currencies, allowing Africans to work remotely for international organisations, and be paid and withdraw money in the currency of their choice regardless of location.
Currently operational in Nigeria, Rwanda and the UK, Payday offers its 330,000+ users virtual Visa and Mastercards, which can quickly be generated using the Payday App. Onboarding 100,000+ new users a month and processing an average of 40,000 transactions per day, Payday processes several million in USD per day as a result of its increasing user base. In February 2023, Payday became a payment partner for Starlink, operated by SpaceX, which now enables Nigerian and Rwandan citizens to purchase Starlink routers seamlessly.
Commenting on the fundraise, Favour Ori CEO and Founder of Payday said, “We’re thrilled that this round of funding will lay the foundation for the continued growth of our platform as we expand our services to a wider audience. This investment represents a significant milestone for our company and we are grateful for the trust and commitment shown by our investors both existing and new. We’re amped to scale our platform and reach more Africans, not only on the continent but around the world. Our passion for empowering individuals and businesses with convenient and secure payment solutions is tangible, and we believe that this funding will allow us to do so on an even greater scale”.
“Our goal remains the same: to make it easy and accessible for anyone to access their payments when on the continent, and with this new funding, we are one step closer to achieving that vision,” concluded Ori.
With the company increasing its user base by 100,000+ a month, the evolution of Payday and its services was inevitable with Payday 3.0 being launched in January of this year.
Currently, an estimated 80 million African citizens work remotely. Payday’s global payment processing capabilities make it a valuable tool for the continent’s expanding digital nomad population looking to make and accept payments from around the world.
