Nigerian Fintech Startup Okra, Raises $3.5 Million In Seed Investment

Less than a year after a $1 million pre-seed round, Nigerian startup, Okra, has raised another $3.5 in seed investment. This round was led by Susa Ventures - a US-based seed-stage venture fund, and Accenture Ventures. Others include TLcom Capital, who were the sole funders of the pre-seed round last year, Rob Solomon of GoFundMe, and Robinhood founding engineers, Arpan Shah and Hongxia Zhong.

Launched by Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside in 2020, Okra has created an open finance platform that can be used as a digital transformation tool by businesses and its API enables developers and businesses to build personalized digital services and fintech products for customers. It currently boasts of a robust client base spanning different sectors including digital businesses, financial institutions, government agencies, and fintech companies, with some prominent ones being Interswitch, Access Bank, uLesson, and Aella App.

In the pre-seed announcement, the company was planning its African expansion. However, following this seed round, it is now focused only on Nigeria.

Okra’s business model involves taking commissions off digital businesses that integrate the solution on their platforms for KYC confirmation, payment and transaction authorization, and identity protection.

Co-founder and COO, David Peterside, said in an interview that the startup is actively engaging regulators, and abides by relevant data protection laws. Recently, fintech startups in Nigeria have been plagued by regulatory bodies like the Securities Exchange Commission, and CBN.

With this funding comes growth, and the company would need to expand its operations team. According to Fara Ashiru, the CEO and CTO, Okra will undergo a massive hiring process.

Since its launch last year, Okra has analyzed over 20 million transactions and has recorded an average month-on-month API call growth of 281 percent. Last month alone, it analyzed 5.5 million transactions.