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 strategically invested in piloting trade financing for their large enterprise clients; an additional $371 billion market in Africa.
Given the dominance of the US Dollar (USD) in global trade, the trade deficit in many emerging economies means the demand for USD typically outstrips available supplies. This imbalance negatively impacts the flow of trade, adding unnecessary costs and delays to the movement of various products and services. While there is already a wide range of Africa-focused cross-border payments and USD banking solutions for freelance, diaspora and remote workers, these products are typically geared towards consumers and multi-currency bank accounts, with limited emphasis on improving liquidity for large enterprises and multinational organisations in emerging markets; a $7 trillion market with a $280 billion revenue opportunity.
Waza started its operations 18 months ago in stealth in January 2023 after joining Y Combinator’s Winter 23 batch. It has since served hundreds of businesses, processing over $700m in annualised payment volume, facilitating business payments across 6 continents and impressively growing at 20% monthly. The company achieved profitability in the fourth quarter of 2023 and has successfully 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 solutions.
Waza is an MSB-registered entity in the US and a VASP-licensed company that has built a B2B payment and liquidity platform that makes it easy for emerging market businesses to pay their suppliers globally. The company is building the payment infrastructure that will help improve foreign exchange liquidity in these markets while giving businesses a secure, easier and more affordable way to make their global payments.
Waza’s founding team consists of Maxwell Obi (a 2x founder and experienced fintech entrepreneur) and Emmanuel Igbodudu (a senior software engineer with extensive global experience).
Maxwell previously co-founded and exited Amplify, a Nigeria-based Fintech that was acquired by Carbon in 2019. He was also Head of Business at Sendwave, where he led market expansion, partnerships and regulatory relationships in Africa, Asia and Latin America until the company was acquired by Worldremit for $500m in 2021.
Emmanuel on the other hand was a Senior Engineer at Revolut in London, leading the engineering team building the Vaults product. He has also held leading roles at other top technology/payment companies including Moniepoint, Fairmoney and Carbon.
Chris Muscarella, Managing Director of Timon Capital said “The Waza team has deep experience around cross-border flows and they are going after one of the bigger opportunities in frontier markets. We’re excited to finally have a chance to partner with Maxwell and the team.”
Youcef Oudjidane, Managing Partner of Byld said: “It is rare to see a startup grow so quickly, a testament to Max and the team, and a nod to the large opportunity in cross-border payments and trade.”
