Lemonade Finance, a startup that allows Africans abroad to send and receive money from home, has raised US$725,000 in pre-seed funding.
The funding came from YCombinator, and Venture Capital firms, Microtraction, Ventures Platform, and Acuity Venture Partners alongside several other individual investors.
Founded in 2020 by Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran, Lemonade Finance is a digital bank for the African diaspora. The startup provides users with accounts in their country of residence and country of origin for personal and business banking needs.
Commenting, Dayo Koleowo, Managing Partner at Microtraction: “Lemonade’s solution is very timely. As a multi-currency financial service provider, they make it easy for the African diaspora to send and receive money from their new country of residence, which is remarkable.
“We believe Rian and Ridwan have the technical and financial know-how to provide the number 1 cross-border neobank for Africans in the diaspora.”
For, Kayode Oyewole, a partner at Ventures Platform, said, “We are excited to back Ridwan, Rian and the Lemonade team, who have built a compelling financial product to serve the more than 100 million African diasporas, who today have limited access to great financial products.
“The founders are rockstars with deep experience building and scaling products to reach millions of users.”
