Pan-African neobank Payday secures $3 million seed round

They join follow-on investors Techstars, Angels Touch, Ingressive Capital & Now Venture Partners. Along with existing investors Ethos VC, MAGIC Fund, Ventures Platform, Voltron Capital, and others.

This brings Payday’s total investment to date to $5.1m, following a $2m+ pre-seed round in 2021. In an oversubscribed round, 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 millions 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. Dedicated to building a super app that enhances and simplifies the UX for its customers, some of its new features include:

• Global Accounts (USD, GBP, EUR, etc)
• Virtual USD & NGN Cards
• Currency Swaps
• Payment Links
• Local Bills Payment
• Peer-to-Peer Transfers
• The possibility to add user account information to platforms such as Deel to receive salaries in minutes rather than days

Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO of Moniepoint Inc shared, “At Moniepoint, we’re excited about the unique things Favour and the team are doing with Payday. Personally, I connect deeply with his drive, technical depth, and desire to execute. The urge to encourage that fire inspired us to want to be a part of this.

More important is the alignment in our goal to provide financial happiness by addressing key payment pain points - Moniepoint with merchants and Payday with individuals. We see a potential to leverage their infrastructure to further deepen our suite of financial services for merchants, and we’re looking forward to all that's to come”.

Temi Marcella Awogboro, General Partner at MAGIC Fund said, “We were early backers of Favour and the Payday team, supporting their audacious vision of enabling swift borderless online payments services for Africa. We are pleased with the positive significant milestones achieved on this journey and remain confident in Favour and the teams’ ability to positively disrupt the sector and impact lives, connecting individuals and businesses with the vast opportunities around the world”.

Maya Horgan Famodou, Founder and MD at Ingressive Capital said, “Favour is one of the most savviest entrepreneurs I have met. He knows how to assess, execute, and pivot exactly when necessary. Hence why Payday has seen such explosive growth. This is certainly a gem in our portfolio. I’d bet on Favour and Payday again any day, both to realize the transformational value and also to make us proud with an exit the ecosystem will reference for years to come”.

Sunil Sharma, Managing Director at Techstars Toronto stated, “A word that best describes Favour Ori is relentless," says Sunil Sharma, Managing Director of Techstars Toronto and one of the earliest investors in Payday. I was struck by his personal story which took him from Nigeria to the US for his computer science degree and some valuable early work experience, then to Rwanda to establish a team, then to the UK and back to the US in pursuit of growth. Favour is always in search of opportunity and nothing can get in his way”.

John Andreini, Founding Partner at Ethos VC said, “I had experience investing early on with Flutterwave and Chipper Cash and when I met Favour it became clear that he was the right person to lead the next generation of fintech companies in Africa”.

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.