Waza, a payment and liquidity platform for emerging market businesses, has secured $8 million in equity and debt funding to make it easier for African businesses, traders, and other large organisations to manage and pay their suppliers globally.
The funding includes a $3 million seed equity round from institutional and strategic investors like Y Combinator, Byld Ventures, Norrsken Africa, Heirloom VC, Plug and Play Tech Center, Olive Tree Capital, and others. The $5 million debt funding was secured from Timon Capital and will be invested in piloting trade financing for the firm's large enterprise clients, an additional $371 billion market in Africa.
Founded by Maxwell Obi, a co-founder of Nigerian fintech Amplify, and Emmanuel Igbodudu, a former senior engineer from Revolut. Waza is an MSB-registered entity in the US and a VASP-licensed company, with operations in Ghana and Nigeria.
Waza started its operations 18 months ago in stealth in January 2023 after joining YCombinator’s Winter 23 batch. It has since served hundreds of businesses, processing over $700 million in annualised payment volume, facilitating business payments across six continents, and growing at 20% monthly. The company achieved profitability in the fourth quarter of 2023 and has sustained its profitability into 2024. The new funding will support its expansion into new markets beyond its current operations in Ghana and Nigeria, as well as the delivery of new trade finance products.
Says Obi: “This new funding that brings us closer to our vision of transforming B2B payments and access to liquidity for businesses across the continent. By providing a more efficient settlement infrastructure, we are bridging the foreign exchange and liquidity gap and empowering African businesses to access more global trade opportunities that will drive economic growth and development in the markets we serve.”