Nigerian fintech startup Pandascrow has launched a payments solutions platform built on escrow technology to help African businesses from new startups to market leaders in the commerce industry and beyond – grow.
Pandascrow was born out of painful experiences of CEO Precious Tom and then several other members of the core team, as far back as 2018, with further surveys confirming their negative experiences were far from unique.
Development began shortly thereafter, with the startup launching in private beta in February 2021 before public beta in February 2022. It went fully public in May, and since then has processed over US$100,000 in transactions. Tom said he is aware Pandascrow has competitors, but planned to succeed due to the quality of its service.
“I’m not ignorant of the fact that we’ve got competitors who offer the same escrow service. They talk about the white label, API integration, dispute resolution, and blockchains a lot, but here’s the thing,” he said.
“We don’t want to do all of these things. What we want to do is leap ahead of all this and solve the actual problem, which is security, super ease of use, affordability, insurance, efficiency, reputation, mobility, emotional appeal, and finally privacy. This is what Pandascrow stands for.”
The startup, which monetises via percentage fees on transactions, recently launched its API to allow online businesses to leverage on its solution to build their product, and also launched a payment checkout platform. It has partnered with a couple of fellow Nigerian startups – Dojah to ensure user KYC is seamless, and Fincra to expand payment options.
Self-funded to date, it is now looking at raising pre-seed funding to scale its operations.
“Looking forward, we will keep working hard to position ourselves not just as an escrow company in Nigeria for Africa, but the escrow company in Nigeria for Africans,” Tom said.
“We currently operate in the Nigerian market, but we’ve got systems in place to accept international payments. In the coming months we plan on entering more African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ghana.”
