Shopify has made an investment into Nomba, a Nigeria-based FinTech firm that raised $30 million in what it classifies as a “pre-Series B” funding.
The round was led by Base10 Partners, which has also invested in FinTech companies Nubank, Plaid, and Brex. In addition to Shopify, it also saw participation from existing investors Partech Partners and Khosla Ventures, as well as new investor Helios.do.
Founded by Yinka Adewale (CEO) and Pelumi Aboluwarin (CTO) in 2016, Nomba offers payments and banking tools for business owners in Nigeria. It initially offered a chatbot that responds to financial requests on social platforms under the name “Kudi.ai.” Over the years, the company expanded its suite of digital payment solutions, rebranding to “Nomba” in 2022.
With this round, Nomba has raised approximately $36.7 million USD in total funding to date. When it operated as Kudi in 2019, Nomba raised $5 million USD in a Series A round, which received contributions from Partech and Khosla, as well as Michael Seibel, managing director of Y Combinator.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Adewale said that the capital raised in this investment round will allow the company to deliver tailored payment and operational solutions designed for specific businesses, including food companies and restaurants, as well as logistics and transport companies. Additionally, Nomba would also explore a pan-African expansion after seeing initial success in Nigeria.
Nomba is one of the latest additions to Shopify’s investment portfolio, which largely focuses on funding companies that support the Shopify merchant ecosystem as well as online retailers more generally.
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For example, Triple Whale, which unifies business metrics into one dashboard for e-commerce businesses, announced the closing of its Series B round in February with participation from Shopify.
In October 2022, Shopify also made an investment into WATI, a Hong Kong startup that offers a customer engagement software built on WhatsApp’s Business API.
Other companies that Shopify has backed include Toronto digital logistics startup Swyft, and Loop, which provides an exchange-first returns platform for Shopify brands.
Featured image courtesy Nomba.