Rinchi
TechInAfrica – Zambian FinTech startup that offers a digital money account, Zazu, has announced on its blog post that it had raised $1.4 million in funding. The Lusaka-based startup was founded in 2015 by Perseus Mlambo and joined by COO Alessandra Martini as co-founder a year later. Following the funding announcement, the company also said that it planned to launch a second crowdfunding campaign in the coming weeks.
On the same blog post, Zazu did not mention further when it closed the investment deal nor from whom it raised it from. According to Crunchbase, Zazu raised £465,360 in two equity crowdfunding rounds in 2017 which included French angel investor, Marc Ménasé.
In 2016, Zazu raised £140,993 in seed funding from UK equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs and the Key Fund. Meanwhile, in 2015, it raised £30,000 from Seedrs, Dotforge, and the Ignite Accelerator.
Zazu was an AgriTech company connecting farmers with extra produce to new markets. However, in 2017, it pivoted its business into FinTech. At the beginning of 2019, the startup launched a chatbot that teaches financial services to Zambians for free. The chatbot service now has hit 1.1 million users.
Zazu has a mobile wallet that can be used to transfer money for free, purchase goods using a QR code or to pay bills like TV subscriptions, electricity, and airtime. Its client base includes retailers, NGOs, and individuals to collect payments and manage their money in a simpler way.
According to the FinTech, it has gotten feedback to give a QR code to every merchant in Zambia so that it can enable customers to spend their money and get advantages from Zazu’s spending analysis. Zazu always listens to customers’ feedback, thus, it will launch a prepaid card in November that can be used anywhere around the world that accepts Visa or Mastercard.
Source: ventureburn.com
