African Fintech Pioneer Revio Secures $5.2 Million in Seed Funding

Revio, the pioneering payment orchestration platform aimed at helping merchants optimize their order-to-cash cycle, proudly announces a successful seed investment round that has raised an impressive $5.2 million. The funding initiative, spearheaded by esteemed fintech fund QED Investors, has seen substantial participation from key contributors such as Partech. Additionally, Revio’s existing investors, including Speedinvest, RaliCap, and Everywhere VC, continued their support, solidifying the fintech firm’s growth trajectory.

With this fresh capital infusion, Revio is strategically positioned to expand its reach throughout Africa significantly. The company aims to enhance its routing logic while bolstering its capabilities to deliver even more value to its esteemed customers. To achieve these ambitious goals, Revio will embark on a mission to identify and onboard top-tier talent across the African continent and in critical international markets to fortify its growth strategies.

Revio’s Co-founder and CEO, Ruaan Botha, emphasized the explosive growth of digital payments in Africa, projected to surge to $146 billion in 2023, a figure that doesn’t even account for the roughly $500 billion attributed to mobile money transactions. Botha highlighted the unique challenges and opportunities present in the African payments landscape, such as the vast fragmentation with over 280 licensed payment service providers, 42 different currencies, and distinct consumer payment cultures.

Nicole Dunn, Co-founder and COO of Revio, added further insights, emphasizing the importance of navigating this complex environment. She noted that a significant portion of the consumer base is just beginning to embrace online platforms, and many are financially cautious, closely monitoring their cash flow. Consequently, both local and global merchants face substantial obstacles in reaching customers and ensuring seamless revenue collection. These hurdles often manifest in high customer acquisition costs, intricate integration processes, and elevated payment failure rates.

Revio has positioned itself as a solution to these pressing issues with its single payment API and orchestration platform. The company empowers merchants, payment providers, and platforms to collaborate effectively, resulting in improved customer acquisition, enhanced success rates, and better retention. Revio simplifies the complexities associated with multiple payment integrations and onboarding procedures. Moreover, it assists both global and local merchants in optimizing their end-to-end payment processes. This optimization is achieved through intelligent transaction routing, automated failover and retries, and real-time customer engagement workflows.

Gbenga Ajayi, Partner and Africa Lead at QED Investors, expressed confidence in Revio’s potential to revolutionize payments in Africa. He believes that the company’s platform can stimulate increased e-commerce and digital payment activity on the continent while helping merchants, both local and global, tap into new customer segments.

Revio’s Co-founder, Ruaan Botha, expressed gratitude for the support from esteemed global and local investors, particularly QED and Partech. With this new funding, Revio is enthusiastic about doubling its efforts to unlock fresh opportunities for its growing clientele. Since its previous funding round led by Speedinvest in June 2022, Revio has expanded its reach to over 25 African markets and incorporated 70 payment methods. The company proudly counts four of Africa’s largest insurers and two leading telcos among its clients. Furthermore, it has forged a strategic partnership with a tier 1 African bank to offer distribution to its enterprise and mid-size clients.

Nicole Dunn, Revio’s COO, highlighted the company’s strong position in large, regulated industries and the trust it has garnered from clients and partners. She believes that this recent injection of capital, combined with its existing network and credibility, will accelerate Revio’s growth and attract top-notch talent. Revio aims to become the trusted partner for payment operations in Africa, offering solutions that address the intricate challenges of payment processing for businesses across the continent.

Matthieu Marchand, Principal at Partech, emphasized the significance of getting payments right for international and African enterprises. He noted the complexity of reconciling millions of transactions across different payment methods, currencies, and customer information. Marchand believes that Revio’s innovative approach is a game-changer for its customers, resolving these critical challenges and enhancing payment operations significantly.