Nigerian startup, Klasha has raised the sum of $2.1 million to expand its array of products for the cross-border commerce space in Africa. The new funding brings its total seed round to $4.5 million having secured $2.4 million in October last year.
A group of international investors co-led by American Express (AMEX) Ventures, the strategic investment group of American Express participated in the latest deal. Investors from its first seed tranche such as Greycroft, Seedcamp, Plug and Play, Berrywood Capital and Breega also took part.
Klasha has a suite of business- and consumer-facing products connected via one API. KlashaCheckout allows merchants outside Africa to collect payments from six countries on the continent — Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa and Kenya — and get paid in G20 currencies like dollars, pounds or euros. KlashaWire allows small merchants in these six countries to pay their suppliers in their local currencies.
- Commenting on the funding, Klasha CEO, Jessica Anuna, said: “I think the fact that AMEX is now investing in the continent, especially after investing in companies like Stripe, is really powerful.”
- On Klash’s performance, Anuna said the company is growing 20% month-on-month in merchant acquisitions and 17.5% in transaction volume. “The biggest product development is this app allowing these consumers to shop from selected stores like Boohoo.com, pay using their Klasha wallet, which you can fund by multiple different African currencies and get delivered to their door,” she added.
- “The core mission of Klasha is to streamline cross border commerce from Africa to the rest of the world. And in turn, give the rest of the world access to African consumers on the ground who want and need these goods globally,” Anuna said.
- The Global Head of AMEX Ventures, Matt Sueoka, said: “We look forward to seeing the company’s innovative solutions help open up commerce for African consumers and facilitate cross-border payments. Klasha has the potential to drive spending by making payments simpler in emerging markets and allows merchants to scale within the continent and abroad.”
Founded three years ago and launched in 2021, Klasha is tapping into Africa’s cross-border space in a vast e-commerce market worth over $25 billion. The startup is solving payment issues African merchants and consumers face when they pay for products online via different payment methods.
