Okra, Nigerian Startup, Raises $3.5million to Expand to Kenya and South Africa
- Fara Jituboh and David Peterside secured $3.5 million from over five investors in a seed round
- The fund was raised from Susa Ventures, TLcom Capital, Accenture Ventures, Rob Solomon, and Arpan Shah
- Ths startup had previously secured $1 million last year, and the recent $3.5 million gives Okra a total of $4.5 million
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Nigeria's fintech API, Okra, which was founded by Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside, has raised $3.5 million from over five investors who bet on the technical depth and expertise of the founders.
The capital was raised in a seed round, bringing their total raised funds in two rounds to $4.5 million. The company had previously obtained $1 million from pre-seed round in 2020.
The recent fundraising was led by Susa Ventures, which is situated in the United States. Other investors that participated in the capital infusion are TLcom Capital and Accenture Ventures.
Angel investors like Rob Solomon, Chairman at GoFundMe and a former partner at Accel; Arpan Shah, founding engineer and ex-head of data platforms and data products at Robinhood all partook in the fundraising.
Founding engineer and ex-senior engineering manager at Robinhood, Hongxia Zhong, also contributed to fund Okra, which was established in 2019. The capital will power the startup which assist companies in building products for financial payments.
Source: UGC
On a month-on-month average, over 150,000 live API calls have been recorded by Okra, while over 20 million transactions have been analysed by the startup, with financial institutions like Renmoney, Carbon, Autochek, Access bank and Interswitch using Okra API.
With its widespread usage in Nigeria's financial system, Okra now has a pan-African mindset, with plans to expand into Kenya and South Africa.
Commenting on why TLcom Capital continued investing in Okra since its pre-sales round, the senior partner of the investor, Omobola Johnson said:
“Fara’s technical depth and expertise, which when combined with the entrepreneurial acumen she and David bring to the company, leaves us confident that they are building Africa’s most stable and robust API infrastructure. TLcom is delighted to continue partnering with Okra.”
Jituboh said Okra build the tools needed by businesses for full digital transformation. He noted the participation of new investors supporting the company financially as it scale its Open Finance-as-a-Service operations.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the cost of flight rose significantly within a year after its average price rose from N30,743.66 per air passenger in March 2020, to N36,458 in February 2021.
This was stated by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics in its transportation report. The bureau also stated that okada fare doubled during the same period, rising by 102.46% in one year, from N134.07 in March 2020 to N266.74 kobo in February 2021.
Rivers State, Taraba and Yobe States recorded the highest price, and Adamawa, Katsina and Niger recorded the lowest price.
Source: Legit.ng
