Existing investors Inventure and other private and institutional funds such as Fedha Capital and Exotix Advisory returned, with participation from other private and institutional funds such as Fedha Capital and Exotix Advisory. Individual investors included Petri Kivinen, a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and Renaissance Capital; Abiodun Ajai, a director at Bank of America’s Sub-Saharan Africa division; and Jonas Dromberg, a former Bloomberg bureau chief. This additional funding will be used to develop the company’s payment infrastructure, accelerate its growth, and expand its team. CEO Omoniyi Olawale, who was based solely in Helsinki at the time, stated that the funds raised ($600,000 in seed) will be used to launch the company in Nigeria.However, the firm did not complete its launch in Lagos until five years later.His company, which secured an additional €2 million, was fine-tuning its technology and adding more features, which caused the delay.That pitch hasn’t altered, and ZirooPay has grown tremendously in its three years of existence. Over 15,000 merchants use the company’s POS terminals and mobile app, according to the company. Over the course of three years, these merchants processed $500 million in transactions, a 5,000 percent increase. In order to build out an omnichannel system for retailers, ZirooPay will use the growth funding to expand its product suite and incorporate other payment channels and possibilities. And, as POS providers in Nigeria, particularly fintechs, increasingly focus on agency banking—a massive fintech segment that fosters financial inclusion—ZirooPay sees an opportunity to dominate an open retail space.
