Prospa, a YC-backed Nigerian startup offering software and financial services to entrepreneurs and micro-businesses, has announced it closed a $3.8 million pre-seed investment, which was oversubscribed by 380%.
The round was backed by venture funds Global Founders Capital and Liquid 2 Ventures. Leading entrepreneurs also participated in the round including Mercury’s Immad Akhund, Ramp’s Karim Atiyeh, Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal, Todd Goldberg and Rahul Vohra’s angel investment fund, and executives from Square, Facebook and Nubank. This investment is the largest pre-seed round for a Nigerian fintech.
Founded in 2019 by Frederik Obasi, Chioma Ugo, and Rodney Jackson-Cole, Prospa provides banking and software services for micro-businesses, allowing users to open a fully operational bank account in five minutes and also offering access to a suite of tools such as invoicing, inventory management, employee payroll, an e-commerce platform and an analytics dashboard.
With the capital, Prospa plans to further accelerate customer acquisition, scale its team with a focus on product and engineering and develop its product offerings.
“At Prospa, we believe that successful small businesses can foster prosperity for Nigerians everywhere. Our goal is to power every Nigerian entrepreneur so that they achieve scale. This is the opportune moment: we’re seeing a huge demand for our service,” said Obasi, Prospa’s chief executive officer (CEO).
“The Prospa team is building a world class product that is tailored to the needs of Nigeria’s entrepreneurs. They have executed brilliantly and we’re happy to partner with Prospa on their journey to become the OS for Nigeria’s entrepreneurs and micro-businesses,” said Don Stalter, GFC head of North America.
