‘Deal!’ Nigerian startup raises $1million seed round extension to expand across Africa

Freelanews August 3, 2022

Identification service startup, Youverify, said it has secured a $1 million seed round extension bringing its total raise for the round to $2.5 million, having raised $1.5 million in 2020.

The company says the funding will be used to support its product improvement and development, talent acquisition, and African expansion.

Africa-focused VCs, Orange Ventures and LoftyInc Capital, the two investors who co-led its initial seed round, also led the extension. Additional investment came from Octerra Capital, Plug & Play Venture, Syntax Ventures, HTTP Investors, Afer Group, and Fronesyz Capital.

What the company is saying

Announcing the fundraising today via its LinkedIn page, Youverify said: “We’re happy to announce that we have secured a $1 million extension to seed round, totaling $2.5million dollars for this round.

“Our appreciation goes to Orange Ventures, and LoftyInc Capital Management for leading the way, and Octerra Capital, Plug and Play Tech Center, Syntax Ventures, HTTP Investors, Afer Group and Fronesyz Capital LLP for supporting our raise.”

“We will like to appreciate all our clients and partners for choosing us, we remain dedicated to providing the technology and service that helps your business scale without fear of fraud or breach of compliance.”

“The funding will be used to support our Product improvement and development, talent acquisition, and African expansion,” the company added.

What you should know

Youverify came into Africa’s regtech scene when founder and CEO Gbenga Odegbami founded the company in 2018.
Launched in the Nigerian market, Youverify first provided API for address and identity verification to several financial institutions.
Now it has added more KYC products and expanded into new markets such as Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.
Similar providers of this type of service in Africa include Smile Identity and YC-backed companies IdentityPass and Dojah.