Payday : 24 year old Nigerian secures $1m to build the PayPal of Africa

With a strong and diverse team at the helm, the fintech firm is poised to build a successful platform for Africans to send and receive money around the world.

Payday, a Pan-African financial technology company raised one million dollars to build out what they believe will be the “PayPal” for Africa. The company was backed by several investors including LofyInc, Microtraction, Magic Fund, Ventures Platform, Voltron Capital, CcHub Syndicate, Helicarrier Inc, Greencap Equity, Midlothian Angel Network, Emergence Capital, Olugbenga Agboola (GB), Charles Odita, Eke Eleanya, Adegoke Olubusi, Edmund Olotu, Prosper Otemuyiwa, Dimeji Sofowora, Perseus Mlambo, Abdul Hassan, Onyekachukwu Somtochukwu Eyisi, and a host of other investors.

Nigeria’s Favour Ori, CEO of Payday founded the company in May 2021 and kicked off its beta test in June 2021 with a cold launch in July. Within three weeks of launch, Payday successfully processed over $1.4 million in transactions.

Payday’s product offerings include sending and receiving money globally, getting paid by foreign employers and clients, issuing Virtual Mastercards, and paying tuition and other fees in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Payday is also used by foreign businesses such as TalentQL (TechStars), Tupelo, and a slew of others to pay their employees in Africa for a variety of services such as payroll, taxes, and compliance.

“Payday’s solution is extremely timely and it backs up Africa’s agenda of a single market. Making it seamless and easy to pay people in their local currency and through multiple checkout options is a strong boost for AfCFTA” – ‘Bosun Tijani.

Temi Awogboro, General Partner at MAGIC Fund said “Magic is delighted to be an early backer of Favour and the Payday team in achieving their audacious vision of enabling swift borderless online payments services for Africa, thereby connecting its users with vast opportunities around the world.
This aligns with our founders-backing-founders thesis and we are excited by the opportunity to support the team as they positively disrupt the space.”

“Africa is home to some of the most talented and ambitious entrepreneurs we see in the world today, and they are solving problems for one of the biggest markets on the planet. Sending money remains complicated, time-consuming and expensive but we believe Payday Africa has the vision to liberate Africans and the global diaspora to send and receive money quickly and affordably” says Sunil Sharma, Managing Director of Techstars Toronto.

“Ventures Platform said we are thrilled to partner with Payday as they seek to ease the difficulty with moving money around Africa and across the world; this is even more critical as remote work opportunities continue to grow for young Africans” – Kola Aina, General Partner, Ventures Platform.

“We have been really impressed with Payday’s speed to integrate and launch with Union54. They have worked tirelessly to bring a best-in-class product with a delightful design. They have a thoughtful approach to simplifying how money moves and we are delighted to support them today and for the future” – Perseus Mlambo, CEO at Union54.

“Payday is an exciting product that makes moving money around Africa and the world super easy, and the founding team are relentless and committed to the mission. I’m glad to back them.” – Eke Eleanya, Founder/CEO Risevest.

Payday is a platform created to provide swift payments for Africans across the globe.  They want to be the one-stop shop for anyone looking to move money freely within and beyond Africa. Say goodbye to crazy fees and slow wire transfers.
Although the current investment round is closed, Payday is still open to meeting interesting players and investors in the Fintech space.