ZONE, Nigerian Fintech Startup Raised $8.5 million in Seed

Zone, a fintech startup in Nigeria that uses blockchain networks to allow payments in digital currencies just raised $8.5m in a seed round.

This will help the fintech company to expand its horizon and connect with more financial institutions said the startup. 

The funding was led by TLcom Capital and Flourish Ventures and more capital was raised from others such as Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Alter Global, and Endeavor Catalyst.

Before this, Zone facilitated $1 million in transactions at more than 6,000 ATMs for over 10 million cardholders three months after launching the ATM use case.

This success has garnered a lot of excitement from the investors and VCs which has led to the massive seed round. In this time of funding draught, Zone has been able to raise funding having excess investors interested in investing with them.

We can also note that this enormous investment is also due to the unique services that Zone has to offer, being the first fintech startup in Africa to be a regulated blockchain network for payment signing more than 15 Africa’s largest financial institutions.

Another Unique selling point of Zone is that it doesn’t charge an implementation fee which aims to reduce onboarding on clients. Zone is a part of Appzone founded in 2008 with its founders being Obi Emetarom, Emeka Emetarom, and Wale Onawunmi.

It rebranded in 2022 before the CBN granted it the payment switching and processing license which has helped their offerings with other banking and fintech institutions.