Nigerian startup Kippa, through its financial management and payments platform, seeks to enhance the operations of microbusinesses throughout the nation and has secured $8.4 million in a seed round.
Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph, Duke Ekezie, and Jephthah Uche founded the company in June of last year, and it has since attracted funding from companies including Goodwater Capital, TEN13 VC, Rocketship VC, Saison Capital, Crestone VC, VentureSouq, Horizon Partners, and Vibe Capital. According to Kippa, the investment would allow the company to provide financial products that benefit SMEs in expanding their operations and expanding their team in Nigeria.
In November 2021, the firm disclosed it received a $3.2 million pre-seed investment from Target Global and other investors.
Kippa is one of the many bookkeeping services available to small and medium-sized enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa. Other companies that provide such services in the region include Nigerian Pastel, Bamba, Ghana’s OZÉ, and Sierra Leone’s Bumpa.
Many of these firms conducted processes like money management, inventory monitoring, and records of employees and suppliers offline, primarily using pen and paper or ledgers, before the introduction of such solutions. Nearly nine out of ten small firms fail within the first five years due to all these inefficiencies, which take up time, result in mistakes, and have an impact on cash flow and finances.
How Kippa Plans to Help Small Businesses
Due to the price and difficulties in completing the complete registration process, the majority of small firms in Nigeria are not properly registered. As a result, Kippa just introduced what Ekezie-Joseph called one of the quickest incorporation products for small businesses.
“We’ve built a product on top of the current Kippa product that allows businesses to register in 3 days for N15,000,” said Ekezie-Kennedy highlighting the platform’s alternative to legally quicken the process.
“This feature forms the basis for Kippa’s plans to stack financial products besides getting significant traction and driving more revenue,” the CEO added.
Kippa revealed last week that it has been granted permission to function as a Super Agent by Nigeria’s top bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), just like agency banking competitors OPay and TeamApt. With the license, business owners on the Kippa platform can operate as agents and provide individual clients who frequently visit their small businesses. Business owners will now be able to make regular purchases with financial services like cash withdrawals and deposits, bank account opening, bill and utility payments, and insurance.
“We have over 500,000 merchants on our app and there’s a lot of opportunities for us to do more for them and provide more financial services,” said Ekezie-Joseph.
“The super agent license allows merchants and typical neighborhood shops who already use our bookkeeping app into a one-stop-shop for essential financial services for their customers,” he explained.
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