QED Investors, a world-renowned US-based venture capital (VC) fund, has established its first investment in the African fintech space after announcing a 50 million USD investment in TeamApt, a Nigerian business platform.
Nigel Morris, Frank Rotman and Caribou Honig founded QED in 2007, making it the premier VC firm in Fintech, since then, it has grown to become one of the largest of its kind with over 5 billion USD in assets as well as a presence across 14 countries.
Despite reports claiming the investment is over 50 million USD in value, neither QED nor TeamApt has publicly revealed the actual figure. Financial Technology (FT) Partners, an investment banking firm, served as the exclusive financial and strategic advisor to TeamApt in the financing round in which existing investors from the company’s Series B in 2021 — Novastar Ventures, Lightrock and BII — all participated in.
Founded in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda, TeamApt helps businesses build financial platforms by providing them with all the payment, banking, credit and business management tools they need to succeed. The platform boasts of supporting over 400,000 businesses to get paid, processing $100 billion annualized run-rate transaction value via its products- Moniepoint and Monnify.
In an official statement shared with TechCabal, CEO Tosin Eniolorunda confirmed the financing round stating that it helps the firm in widening its credit offerings. “QED’s investment proves TeamApt’s opportunity for exponential growth as a world-class financial institution at the forefront of Africa’s economic revolution,” he added.
“As core fintech operators, QED is bringing the fintech expertise we need to scale in Nigeria and as we plan to expand our offering across Africa. With QED’s operator expertise and TeamApt’s excellent management team, TeamApt will continue digitising Africa’s economy and enabling growth, inclusion and access to financial services,” he continued.
Earlier this year, QED made a move rarely made by VC firms by hiring Gbenga Ajayi as a partner and Chidinma Iwueke as principal earlier in the year. Speaking as QED’s Head of Africa, Ajayi said, “I am proud to bring Africa to QED and QED to Africa. I could not think of a better way to enter the continent than with our investment in TeamApt. Tosin and his team have steadily built an impressive payment and distribution network across Nigeria over the past five years. Their strong and positive unit economics, coupled with a deep customer focus, will enable them to continue to build out an even more expansive network.”
“Enabling a growing digital form of payments for merchants and consumers in Nigeria is exciting, but being able to deepen the financial capability of these merchants, providing them with the everyday tools and credit they need to run their businesses, will be profoundly impactful,” he added.
