Africa's Fintech Appzone upraises $10M

Africa’s fintech space has gained proper attention over the past few years in investments but it is not news that startups still battle with offering high-quality products. However, they seem to be doing quite well compared with traditional banks that face challenges like legacy cost structures and a major lack of operational efficiency.

App zone is a fintech software provider. It is one of the few companies that build proprietary solutions for these financial institutions and their banking and payments services. Today, the company is announcing that it has closed $10 million in Series A investment.

Typically, African financial institutions rely on using foreign technology solutions to solve their problems. But issues around pricing, flexibility to innovate, and a lack of local tech support always come up. This is where Appzone has found its sweet spot. The company based in Lagos, Nigeria, was founded by Emeka Emetarom, Obi Emetarom, and Wale Onawunmi in 2008.

App zone clearly plays a different game from other African fintech. One clear differentiator is that the company functions as an enabler (at payment rails and the core infrastructure) within banking and payments.

“We started App zone with the intention to build out innovative local solutions for banking and payments on the continent,” CEO Obi Emetarom said. “The focus was to leverage our ability as an enabler to create proprietary technology for both segments.”