Nigerian fintech startup Swipe has raised US$500,000 in pre-seed funding this year as it looks to expand access to its various credit services.
Founded in 2020, Swipe is a credit-focused tech company powering businesses in Africa by providing credit solutions to enable business growth and expansion through credit purchases.
Its mission is to drive credit card adoption through its Cards as a Service (CAAS) product by liaising with employers and to facilitate flexible payments at checkout points across Africa with its BNPL product.
“Our BNPL model onboards merchants onto our platform and allows users to buy now and pay later using a Swipe Card while our CAAS model onboards organisations and companies as partners to assist with the management, funding, and tracking of field expenses incurred by employees using Swipe Cards. On the CAAS model, employees are allowed flexible access to up to 50 per cent of their earned salary via Swipe Card,” Temidayo Dauda, CEO of Swipe, told Disrupt Africa.
“Considering the Nigerian economy, we spotted that people in Nigeria need more flexible ways of making payments for products and services. People had to wait till payday or borrow from friends to pay for their needs. We noticed this and decided to find a solution to help our target users get their needs at the moment while spreading the payments over a scheduled time interval.”
In 2020, Swipe partnered with Flutterwave to provide card services to users. However, the team had to move on to a more versatile card service as customers were restricted from making transactions on platforms that did not support Flutterwave’s Rave. By December 2021, Swipe was able to begin the implementation of MasterCard services to help users gain wider access to a vast pool of merchants.
The startup has raised US$500,000 in pre-seed funding this year to help it expand, and has also entered into partnerships with Interswitch and Providus MasterCard. Dauda said it was in the process of closing new deals with some top e-commerce firms. All of this is aimed at driving more uptake, and expanding into new markets.
“We believe that this trajectory will drive credit card adoption beyond individuals and improve the overall perception of credit purchases across the country,” said Dauda.
“We have an objective of shipping this solution across Africa soon, but at the moment, we’re first building confidence in the use of our BNPL and CAAS products across Nigeria.”
