5 Leading API FinTech Startups In Nigeria

Nigeria’s FinTech space is alive with activity. New solutions are being built, startups are raising millions of investor dollars to power their expansion, and the world is starting to notice the revolution that’s unfolding before our eyes.

Until recently, one of those problem areas was the near-absence of APIs that could enable direct access to consumer bank accounts from non-bank platforms. Thankfully, a number of startups have recently emerged to solve this problem.

What APIs Are: A Brief Explanation

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a computer interface that enables ‘communication’ between multiple applications. API FinTechs do this but are specifically designed to link bank accounts with platforms that might require their customers’ financial data to carry out such things as payments, refunds, and the display of information regarding a transaction.

In simple terms, FinTech APIs are at the foundation of applications with which people are able to pay for services and access a history of their financial transactions.

If you’d like to know more about FinTech APIs and how they work, have a look at our article, The Rise of API FinTechs in Nigeria.

Leading API FinTechs In Nigeria

Here are five of the leading API FinTechs in Nigeria, profiled in no particular order.

Okra

Okra’s API connects to various kinds of platforms and applications: edtech, crypto, insurance, lending, personal finance, and any other app that requires data from a user’s bank account to carry out an operation (such as deducting payments or viewing transaction history).

Since its launch in 2019, Okra has quickly scaled its coverage and functionality. It now offers connectivity to every bank in Nigeria; it also boasts a 99.9% guaranteed uptime. Some of the services powered by this startup’s API include user authentication, current and historical balance checks, KYC profiles, and direct debits and payments.

Okra was founded by Fara Ashiru Jituboh (its CEO) and David Peterside. It secured a pre-seed investment of $1 million in 2020 and raised an additional $3.5 million in 2021. Both these investments have helped it to expand and deepen its operations within Nigeria.

Mono

Mono helps businesses to access their customer’s financial data for statements, transactions, and identity verification purposes. With it, they can collect bank payments from customers on their web and mobile apps, and carry out accounts reconciliation.

Lending companies that seek to evaluate their users’ creditworthiness may receive their users’ bank statements showing the cash flow on the accounts extending back 12 months into the past. Mono enables users of financial management apps to monitor real-time account balances and transactions. It also lets customers of FinTech platforms make secure cash deposits that may be transferred to a country they choose.

Founded by Abdul Hassan and Prakhar Singh in 2020, Mono raised $500,000 in pre-seed investment just two months after starting up. The following year, it closed a seed investment round worth $2 million and gained an additional $15 million in its series A round some months later.

Onepipe’s API solutions help organizations to deliver financial services– such as accounts, improved payments and credit –from within their platforms. User organizations are able to issue bank accounts with value-added benefits, launch credit products, provide savings and investment solutions, and drive financial inclusion through digital agents.

Financial services available via Onepipe’s API include account provisioning, payments initiation, and credit organization.

Ope Adeoye, who describes himself as the ‘chief plumber’ at Onepipe, founded the startup in 2018. Two years later, he led the company to raise $950,000 in pre-seed funding from investors. In 2021, Onepipe scooped $3.5 million in its seed funding round.

Bloc

Formerly known as TechAdvance, Bloc launched a proprietary suite of APIs in 2021, which it said would allow startups and other financial service providers to take advantage of its banking-as-a-service infrastructure. It named these products Bloc, and soon changed its name to align with that of the new offering.

Bloc was earlier recognized for its financial services, including Ace Remittance, Data Analytics, G-Pay, and Transfer2Africa. But it has recently moved from delivering utility payments solutions to building and supplying products that undergird payments service provides and other FinTechs.

Edmund Olotu founded TechAdvance in 2009. In 2019, it a $1 million investment from Saudi Arabia’s Lamar Holdings.

Sudo Africa

Sudo Africa provides a card-issuing API to businesses, which lets them issue cards within days (instead of the weeks that it might take to get cards from a bank). Its API infrastructure is created in collaboration with licensed card issuers. Sudo Africa’s clients include enterprises (tech and non-tech), banks, e-commerce businesses, government organizations, and other FinTechs.

Sudo’s founders, Aminu Bakori and Kabir Shittu say they decided to launch the startup after they encountered problems while trying to issue cards at their previous enterprise. Today, Sudo helps to provide physical and virtual cards to users across Nigeria.

Based in Kaduna, Sudo Africa was founded in 2020. In March 2022, it announced that it had secured $3.7 million in pre-seed capital from local and foreign investors.

Final Words

There’s more to come from the API FinTech niche in Nigeria. The startups we’ve talked about here are leading the way to what could be a thriving industry, one that connects multiple points in the country’s FinTech ecosystem. They are also preparing the way for a possible revolution in open banking, which should birth a new breed of FinTechs.