Nigerian fintech Touch and Pay raises $3 million, plans continental expansion

Touch and Pay, a Nigeria-based fintech startup that aims to promote financial inclusion, especially for microtransactions in the nation, has raised $3 million in its seed round funding and plans to expand its offering on the continent.

• The fintech currently operates in Nigerian states: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, and Kano and will expand to Ghana and Senegal with this newly raised fund, it claims.
• Founded in 2019, Touch and Pay uses Near Field Communication (NFC) based payment solutions for different situations. Instead of paying cash, Touch and Pay is helping users to perform their micro-transactions using digital payments, whether they are paying for transport fares, groceries or a cup of coffee. It aims to overall promote a cashless society.
• The fintech which participated in the Y Combinator W22 batch, claims it started payment of bus fares in 2020 and now pays for 350,000 people daily in Nigeria.
• The startup is replicating what M-PESA is doing in East Africa in West Africa by digitizing micropayments, which form the bulk of daily transactions for many. It makes profits by getting a percentage from the transactions it processes, up to $270,000 monthly, it claims.