In a research finding done by Statista, as of 2017, there were about 150,000 POS terminals in Nigeria and that figure has grown to about 543,000 in 2021.
POS terminals are common in Nigeria. They are used to process card payments at several locations and people act like human ATMs. They come in handy for Nigerians who don’t have time to go to the bank.
Most of these POS operations function online and a handful operates offline. Lagos- and Helsinki- based fintech company, ZirooPay just raised $11.4 million in a Series A round which was led by Zrosk Investment Management (a Lagos-based VC).
The round saw participation from existing investors like Nordic Venture Fund and other private and institutional firms like Exotix Advisory and Fedha Capital. Private (and individual) investors like Morgan Stanley, Renaissance Capital, former MD at Deutsche Bank Petri Kivinen, Kurt Bjorklund, Venture Partner at Index Ventures Stephane Kurgan, former Bureau chief at Bloomberg Jonas Dromberg.
How ZirooPay operates is that they provide POS terminals for payment in Nigeria. According to the company, they have over 15,000 merchants that make use of their POS terminals and mobile application.
The company created their patent in-house technology that allows them to process events in real-time without an internet connection. This solution surfaced when they observed a big challenge that affected the rate of transaction failures due to poor internet connection.
The raised funds will enable ZirooPay to expand its product suite and include additional payment options, grow its team and build out an omnichannel system for merchants. Merchants associated with ZirooPay have processed $500 million – a 5000% increase within 3 years – across 10 million transactions.
