South African payments company Yoco has secured $83m in its Series C, which it claims to be the largest single investment raised by a small business-focused payments platform in the Middle East and Africa.
Yoco also claims this is the largest investment raised by a payments company in South Africa.
With the funds , the FinTech company is looking to accelerate that development of its financial ecosystem, which currently support online and in-store payments, business software and capital. Yoco is also use the fresh equity to expand into new markets across Africa and the Middle East.
The company hopes to reach one million merchants within the next four years and to support this, it plans to hire 200 people within the coming year.
Dragoneer Investment Group supported the Series C, marking its first investment in Africa.
Other round backers included Breyer Capital, HOF Capital, The Raba Partnership, 4DX Ventures and TO Ventures as well as previous investors Partech, Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures, Orange Ventures and Quona Capital. Several unnamed global tech leaders also committed capital.
Yoco chief business officer Carl Wazen stated that while Yoco is the largest payments platform in South Africa, it is at the start of its journey. ?There are over 6 million small businesses in South Africa and well over 100 million across the Middle East and Africa that still transact only in cash.Wazen said. ?Recent consumer behaviour shows a shift away from cash and businesses have to rapidly adapt to this change. This presents a huge opportunity and it is our mission to support that transition.p>
Yoco, which was founded in 2015, is a payments partner for more than 150,000 small businesses in South Africa, processing over $1bn in card payments annually.
Yoco CEO Katlego Maphai said, ?Working so closely with small businesses during a global pandemic, and in particular through a challenging socio-economic environment in South Africa, we have a firsthand account of how agile these businesses need to be in a rapidly changing world.
?Removing barriers and levelling the playing field by creating access to financial tools is a big part of answering these challenges. Yoco is at the forefront of solving what is critical for small businesses and enabling them to thrive. This new capital injection translates into an acceleration of access for small businesses in our region and beyond, bringing our vision of open commerce forward,p>
With the close of the round, the company has raised a total of $107m.
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