Nomba Raises $30 Million for ‘Bespoke’ Payment Solutions

Nigeria’s Nomba has raised $30 million to move payments from the “generic” to the specific.

“Despite the growth in digital payments across Africa, most businesses still only have access to generic point-of-sale machines to support the collection of payments,” the payments service provider said in a Tuesday (May 2) news release provided to PYMNTS.

“These machines also typically work in isolation from the rest of the business operations, leading to a variety of inefficiencies in their business processes.”

To that end, the company says it wants to deliver “bespoke payment solutions” for African businesses, meaning those designed for specific services that businesses provide.

“For example, restaurants will be able to access menus, manage inventory, receive payments and perform other business functions all from the same hardware,” the release said.

And for transport and logistics companies, Nomba says its tools will let them directly connect their transactions to payments, leading to a more seamless experience.

Beginning with Nigeria, Nomba says it also aims to roll out a series of business tools, including invoicing and order management solutions to boost efficiency and reduce cost of operations for businesses throughout Africa.

Founded in 2016 as “Kudi.ai” — a chatbot that responds to financial requests on social apps — Nomba has since evolved into an omnichannel payment service provider offering a range of payment solutions, as well as management and banking tools.

“We see payment as a business model, not just a product, and we want to make it easier for businesses to take advantage of all that is possible in their payment processes to support their continued growth and success,” founder and CEO Yinka Adewale said in the release.

“We have a long list of products we have been working on, and the funds we have raised — as well as the investors that have backed us — gives us a lot of confidence about what can be achieved with more effective payment solutions in the hands of business owners.”

The company’s funding round — led by Base10 Partners — comes as businesses in Nigeria are dealing with the effects of the country’s move to ban cash withdrawals from government accounts as it moves to digitize its economy.

The shift has been a “massive hindrance” to the expansion of business-to-business (B2B) payments in the country, Yele Oyekola, CEO and co-founder at Lagos-based B2B FinTech firm Duplo, told PYMNTS last week.

“[The government and central bank] didn’t take their time — we just went from zero to a hundred. They didn’t give citizens enough time to adjust to the sudden change, which has now had a negative effect on payments entirely,” Oyekola said.