Nigerian fintech, Duplo has raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by investors including Y Combinator, MyAsia VC, Flutterwave CEO, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Abdul Hassan (Mono CEO) and African VC firm Oui Capital.
The start-up is attempting to tackle inefficiencies B2B companies encounter when they try to make payments. They make it easy by simplifying payment methods and flows across Africa where distributors create virtual accounts for retailers and agents to make real-time payments, bank transfers and at the same time, the platform reconciles their books automatically.
Yele Oyekola started Duplo after his experience as an economic policy officer for the UN in Africa. He began touring countries when he realised how people and businesses relied heavily on cash. Yele teamed up with Tunde Akinnuwa and Emeka Okwuagwu and started Duplo.
They help companies generate and pay invoices, offer credit to their business and a dashboard that attributes payment flows to a customer, location or merchant. They got into Y Combinator and will be taking part in the accelerators current winter batch.
The three-month-old company has processed over $380,000, customers have reported savings of more than 12% and the platform has grown 60% month-to-month to serve 20+ enterprise businesses.
Duplo has plans to reach $40 million by the end of the second quarter. The funds will help them to improve its tech, product and sales. They will also expand into other sectors like travel, farming, B2B marketplaces, beverages and alcohol.