Dash, a Ghanaian payments app, secures $32.8 million in seed funding
Dash, a Ghana-based unified payments software company, announced that it has raised $32.8 million in an oversubscribed seed round to aid in the interoperability of digital payment networks across Africa.
The round was led by New York-based Insight Venture Partners. Other investors in the round included ASK Capital, Techstars, Guillaume Pousaz’s Zinal Growth Partners, Jitendra Gupta of Jupiter Money, Amrish Rau of Pine Labs, the founders of Moss, executives from ProcessOut, and the founders of PennyLane, as well as ASK Capital, Techstars, Guillaume Pousaz’s Zinal Growth Partners, Jitendra Gupta of Jupiter Money, Amrish Rau of Pine Labs, the
The investment, one of the largest in Africa, will help to develop Mastercard and Visa-style intermediary services for mobile payment wallets across the continent.
Dash completed its first seed round in October. It reopened as investor interest in the firm skyrocketed, with a $8 million initial capital and 200,000 users reportedly transacting $250 million in transactions.
Prince Boakye Boampong founded Dash in 2019 after being inspired by the rise of mobile wallet-based payments in Kenya in 2014.
Dash’s vision is to create a network where consumers and businesses can connect with mobile money and traditional institutions to speed up transactions. Dash, like Visa and Mastercard, routes payments through banks and telecommunications companies regardless of who issued the card.
Users in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya can now link their bank or mobile money accounts to Dash, pay bills, and send and receive money from other Dash users while the platform handles currency conversions.
“We’re working on interoperability so that a Kenyan flying to Ghana or a Ghanaian traveling to Kenya can pay for things without having to change currencies or open accounts when they arrive,” explained Boampong. “We’re following in the footsteps of AliPay and PayTm by developing services that make our users’ lives easier without requiring them to switch providers.”
According to the startup, the funds will be used to expand to new regions such as Tanzania and South Africa, obtain the necessary permits, expand the company’s personnel, invest in technology, and launch new services.
