SA fintech startup Floatpays secures $4m seed funding round to expand in Africa

Floatpays, a South African on-demand payment platform, has raised just under $4 million in an oversubscribed seed fundraising round to help it expand across Africa.

Floatpays is a digital platform that offers on-demand access to pay, seamless savings functionality, and financial education to enhance employee financial wellness. It was founded in 2019 and is a participant in the S21 cohort of the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator incubator.

Following its participation in Y Combinator, the startup has raised a seed round worth nearly US$4 million from investors including Global Founders Capital, Base Capital, Finca Ventures, Raba Partnership, and 4DX Ventures, as well as angels Alan Rutledge, Shaun Hurwitz, Youcef Oudjidane, and Olugbenga Agboola, the co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave.

Founders Factory Africa, Kepple Africa Ventures, Norrsken Foundation, and MFS Investments are among the new investors.

“With this investment, we will be able to strengthen our position in South Africa and grow into the rest of Africa.” “We are speeding the development of critical features that complement our existing product, such as our new interest-bearing savings account that is directly linked to employees’ paychecks,” said Simon Ward, Floatpays’ creator.

Raba Partnership was an early investor or partner in companies such as Flutterwave and Yoco, and founder George Rzepecki expressed enthusiasm for the possibilities of technology in providing fair and transparent financial services products.

“Floatpays is a market leader in the earned salary arena, and they are on their way to becoming the continent’s most trusted brand.” “We are delighted to work with Simon and the Floatpay team to help them achieve their goal of becoming the financial services platform of choice for Africa’s big and rising workforce,” he said.

Ward describes Floatpays as a “little firm with huge goals to create a financially inclusive Africa.”

“I launched Floatpays as a social impact-driven business on a mission to help move employees out of bad debt cycles and into savings and long term financial wellness. Our mission is to educate employees on better personal finance management, support them with financial planning and saving, and give them an alternative to payday lenders or high-interest credit solutions when mid-pay cycle liquidity becomes a problem,” he said.