Revio Secures $5.2 Million in Seed Funding to Boost African Fintech Operations

Revio, a payments orchestration platform, has secured a seed investment round worth $5.2 million. The funding round was spearheaded by QED Investors, with additional participation from Partech, Speedinvest, RaliCap, and Everywhere VC.

The company plans to leverage these funds to expand its coverage across Africa and enhance its routing logic for improved customer value. In addition, Revio aims to recruit top talent from across the continent and key international markets to bolster its growth.

Digital Payments Surge in Africa Amid Challenges

Digital payments have been experiencing a rapid increase across Africa, with projections suggesting a worth of $146 billion by 2023, excluding approximately $500 billion in mobile money transactions. However, challenges such as a fragmented payments ecosystem, low discretionary incomes, and the complexity of payment collection persist.

Revio co-founder and CEO, Ruaan Botha, noted the presence of more than 280 licensed payment service providers, 42 currencies, and unique payment cultures across the continent. Co-founder and COO, Nicole Dunn, added that these issues result in a struggle for both local and global merchants to reach customers and collect revenues.

Revio’s Solution to Payment Fragmentation

Revio’s single payment API and orchestration platform aim to create new opportunities for merchants, payment providers, and platforms. The company’s solution goes beyond simplifying the complexity of multiple payment integrations and onboarding processes. It assists global and local merchants to optimize their end-to-end payment processes with features like intelligent transaction routing, automated failover and retries, and real-time customer engagement workflows.

Gbenga Ajayi, Partner and Africa Lead at QED Investors, expressed strong belief in Revio’s potential to unlock increased e-commerce and digital payment activity on the continent.

Rapid Expansion and Client Growth

Since its last funding round in June 2022 led by Speedinvest, Revio has significantly broadened its reach to more than 25 African markets and 70 payment methods. The company now serves four of Africa’s largest insurers and two largest telcos, and has secured a strategic partnership with a top-tier African bank for distribution to its base of enterprise and mid-size clients.

Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech, highlighted that for every online or offline transaction in Africa, there are numerous providers offering to process the transaction. Revio’s solution, he explained, offers a game-changing approach for international and African enterprises to ensure proper management of payments, offering the right payment methods and identifying the most reliable processing routing.