Seamfix Secures $4.5M in Debut Funding Round to Extend Presence Beyond Nigeria

What’s this about?

• Seamfix, an identity solutions company, has raised $4.5 million from Alitheia IDF to expand to Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa due to currency fluctuations.
• Founded by Chimezie Emewulu and Chibuzor Onwurah, the company provides identity verification solutions to governments and large organizations, partnering with telecom giants like MTN, with plans to build a pan-African identity switch.
• With a track record of serving major Nigerian institutions and processing over 500 million identities, Seamfix welcomes Alitheia Capital’s Tokunboh Ishmael and Seamfix’s COO Frank Atube to its board.

Zoom in…

Seamfix, a 17-year-old identity solutions company, has raised $4.5 million in funding from Alitheia IDF, its first institutional investor as it looks to expand its business outside Nigeria.

Chimezie Emewulu, the company’s co-founder and CEO, mentioned that the company raised the funding to expand into more stable African markets as the fluctuation of the naira has impacted the dollar growth of company revenue. Seamfix will expand to Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.

Context

“From a naira perspective, we see that we are growing year over year but from a dollar perspective, we’re going backwards. That’s why we deliberately decided to start expanding to other countries so that we can earn more in forex,” Emewelu said.  

Seamfix creates digital identities and verification for large organisations and governments in Africa. The company also provides transaction accreditation solutions for these customers. It is already present in Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia and leverages its partnership with the MTN group to provide its identity solution in countries where the telco is present. 

By the Numbers

Digital identity remains a significant problem in Africa, as 542 million people do not have identity cards. Solving the identity problem in Africa would help countries boost GDP growth by as much as 7% but will cost an estimated $6 billion. Seamfix will also use the funding to build a pan-African identity switch to allow for cross-border identity verification on the continent.

Since its inception, Seamfix has built identity solutions for Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission [NIMC], MTN, Glo, Airtel and financial institutions like United Bank for Africa, Interswitch and Union Bank. Its partnership with NIMC helped over 100 million Nigerians acquire national identification numbers, while it helped telcos register their 200 million customers in compliance with regulatory standards. 

Seamfix makes money by selling its identity solution to organisations, charging customers to verify their identity, selling yearly licenses to organisations that access its database of identities, and charging for API calls. Emewelu told TechCabal that the company has processed more than 500 million identities. 

Founded by Chimezie Emewulu and Chibuzor Onwurah, classmates who wanted to ‘seamlessly fix’ problems with technology, Seamfix initially built custom products that digitised organisations’ workflows but pivoted to building identity management solutions in 2015. 

What they are saying…

Emewulu explained that a client project, which involved building a solution that allowed university students to take exams online, made Seamfix realise the identity problem on the continent after students were caught impersonating other students during papers. 

“We implemented a biometric system that took pictures and fingerprint data. Anytime the students show up again under capture, the fingerprint system will generate evidence that this person has come before,” he said. After initial success with the identity verification solution, Seamfix partnered with 9 Mobile to register its customers. 

However, it took until 2015, when Seamfix helped MTN Nigeria reduce an initial $5.2 billion fine to $1.7 billion by bringing its customer registration process up to regulatory standards, for the company’s solution to achieve significant market penetration. 

Bottomline

Tokunboh Ishmael, the co-founder and principal partner of Alitheia Capital, and Frank Atube, the chief operating officer of Seamfix, will join the company’s board.

Source: techcabal.com

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