Diool started life as a mobile recharge project back in 2015, offering small merchants a way to sell prepaid recharges to their customers from a single app, but eventually pivoted into financial services aggregation after realising payment interchanges and financial services access was the pain point of its target users. The startup’s platform makes it simpler for small merchants to accept payments from their customers and repay their suppliers, using many payment methods. In the two years since the pivot, Diool has signed up more than 2,000 merchants, who have transacted more than US$120 million via its platform. It has payments integrations with all mobile money providers in Cameroon, and a regulatory partnership with French multinational investment bank and financial services company Societe Generale. Diool has now announced it has raised US$3.5 million in funding from the Lundin family plus existing investors, taking its total secured investment to US$4.6 million. The startup’s chief executive officer (CEO) Serge Boupda told Disrupt Africa its goal was to build a simpler way to access financial services for small merchants in Africa.
SOURCE: DISRUPT AFRICA
More Stories
At the Coalface of the Green Revolution, but Earning Crumbs
Harris Stresses that U.S. Interests in African Nations Extends beyond Competing with China
Lesotho’s Lawmakers Debated a Motion to Claim Huge Swathes of Territory from South Africa
New HRW Head Weighs in on the UK’s Plan to Deport Asylum Seekers to Kigali
South Africans Spent at least 9.5 Hours a Day Online in 2022
Togo Could Move the Needle on Tropical Diseases
Making It Easier for Everyday Africans to Take Advantage of Previously Restricted Asset Classes
Pirates Disrupt the Gulf of Guinea’s Usually Peaceful Waters
Chad’s Parliament has Approved a Bill to Nationalise Oil Assets
Unilever Nigeria Announces Exit of Home Care and Skin Cleansing Markets by End of the Year
Joshua Baraka is Ugandan Music’s Next Big Thing
Design for Human Rights