Simplifyd raises US$500,000 in Preseed funding to serve affordable data to Africans

Simplifyd has raised US$500,000 in pre-seed funding to unravel the challenges connected to accessing affordable data.

The new funding came from Future Africa and Y combinator - after Simplifyd was elected for the W22 batch of the Silicon Valley-based accelerator.

The startup founders were Tomi Amao, Mayowa Amao, Sam Keiru, and Abiola Fajimi.

in 2020 to serve affordable data to mobile and web app users in developing markets across Africa.

The startup also launched zerodata, as it was part of their aim to become the platform of preference for data-free access to the Internet across Africa. Zerodata is a toll-free internet application platform to enable users to enjoy access to data. The company announced that the Zerodata app is available for Android and Desktop. It also allows users access to instant data-free access to listed apps and websites, consequently allowing businesses to bundle data with their apps.

He said, “Zerodata will cater for users with active data plans and those with none. For users with an active data plan, their data plan isn't consumed when they make use of the application. Our app also enables users with no active data plans to enjoy uninterrupted access to the internet apps listed on the platform.”

“For us, the realization that Africans pay the highest rate for mobile internet in the world proportional to income is worrying. This is a significant challenge that we are happy to solve sustainably through the launch of ZeroData. We are creating a convenient platform to access the internet away from the challenge of huge data consumption for the continent's growing number of Internet users.

According to GSMA, Nigeria had 53 million smartphone connections in 2018 and GSMA calculates that smartphone connections will increase to 154 million by 2025. Experts acknowledge the uptake in data usage across Africa is mainly driven by mobile devices, with GSM retaining a large portion of the market.

The uniqueness of Zerodata is the availability of fine-grained strategies, which help organizations distinguish who should have data-free access to their apps, how much data-free access does each user get, and how best to geolocate data-free access to users in a particular location amongst others.