South African bank card payment provider Yoco has raised $16 million in series B funding. This brings the total investment into the point-of-sale company to $23-million.
Yoco provides bank readers for small business and says it offers a way to accept debit and credit cards that is seven times cheaper than traditional alternatives by removing monthly fees and lock-in contracts.
The company is adding more than 1,500 new merchants every month, making it South Africa’s largest and fastest growing independent card payments provider by the number of merchants, it says.
Thank you @PartechPartners! We're looking forward to our journey and growing small business together 🚀 https://t.co/bOyf3bWbK9
— Yoco (@Yoco_ZA) September 6, 2018
Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Partech, which led the series of funding, has dubbed Yoco one of the top fintech companies in the world.
Other funding partners include Orange Digital Ventures, Dutch Development Bank FMO, South African-based FutureGrowth and existing Series A investors Quona Capital and Velocity Capital.
Cyril Collon, partner at Partech, said in a statement: “Considering that consumer spending in Africa amounts to over $1.4 trillion, much of which is driven by small businesses, Yoco’s ability to use technology to solve real problems for African small businesses at scale makes it a unique implementation of our investment strategy.”
Cape Town-based Yoco, which employs over a hundred people, launched in 2015 after noticing how hard it was for entrepreneurs to gain access to card payment services to help grow their businesses.
Only 7% of South African small businesses accept card payments, despite South Africa having a card penetration of 75%, Yoco CEO and co-founder Katlego Maphai said.
“Small businesses, fundamental to sustainable economic growth, are generally underserved in our part of the world due to their size.” Maphai said the Series B funding allows them to scale their operations.
