Fintech startup Djamo raises $14M to fuel its Francophone Africa expansion

Acquah Nana Yeboah -

Ivory Coast-based fintech startup, Djamo has closed a $14 million funding round – the largest-ever equity round for a startup in Ivory Coast – to expand across Francophone Africa.

  • Founded two years ago by Régis Bamba and Hassan Bourgi in Ivory Coast, Djambo is on a mission to provide financial services for the unbanked and underbanked population in French-speaking markets where less than 25% of adults have bank accounts.
  • The Djamo app allows for interoperability between banks and mobile money, which allows customers in Ivory Coast to send money from their bank accounts to mobile money wallets, and back; it has leveraged this characteristic to build a full suite of financial services.
  • Djamo’s first product is a Visa-powered debit card that lets users make online purchases on sites such as Amazon, Alibaba, or Netflix. Bourgi said 60% of Djamo customers have never used a Visa debit card before joining the platform.
  • The startup claims to have registered over 500,000 customers, a more than 5x increase from the 90,000 customers it had onboarded as of February 2021.
  • The platform has processed over $400 million since inception and is also experiencing a revenue growth of 20% to 25% month-on-month.
  • The $14 million in funding capital will help the startup advance into two other countries across Francophone Africa before the end of next year and expand product offerings to include investments and lending.
  • The round was led by the trio of Enza Capital, Oikocredit and Partech Africa.