Nigerian Fintech, Brass, Secures $1.7mn Financing Round “to bet on African SMEs”
Brass, a Nigerian digital bank delivering easy access to affordable premium banking services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), has today secured $1.7mn in funding to address the heavily underserved banking needs of local entrepreneurs, traders and fast-growing businesses.
The financing round sees participation from Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola (Co-Founder of Flutterwave), Ezra Olubi (Co-Founder of Paystack, acquired by Stripe), Hustle Fund, Acuity Ventures, Uncovered Fund and Ventures Platform.
The new funding will play a key role in accelerating Brass’ expansion into South Africa and Kenya – just a year after launch, and will kickstart a range of new product categories, including an expansion of the startup’s footprint in the credit market as it bids to diversify its customer range.
Launched in July 2020 by Sola Akindolu (previously Head of Product at Kudi) and Emmanuel Okeke (a former Engineering Manager at Paystack), Brass equips SMEs with a full-stack, commercial-grade banking service across various business classes, enabling them to gain greater clarity and control over their money operations and the power to scale their enterprises.
The platform currently boasts a comprehensive suite of products tailored to a wide spectrum of business banking needs, including credit & payment services, payroll and expense management, API support and a host of additional core business services.
To-date, Brass has served thousands of businesses, disbursed over $2mn in credit and recently launched Brass Capital – a cash-flow financing service to support even more fast-growing businesses. Many of Brass’ clients use the platform as their default money operation service provider and its current customer base includes the likes of Send.ng, Mono and Eden as well as restaurants, schools and malls. The platform has also partnered with Flutterwave to drive its expansion plans across Africa.
