Ghana’s Float raises $17m seed round to power cash flow for commerce in Africa
Ghanaian fintech startup Float, a cash flow management and spend platform for businesses in Africa, has closed a US$17 million round of debt and equity seed funding to speed its development and launch new products.
Float provides credit lines to small businesses, as well as tools to manage business accounts and wallets in one dashboard, and tools to automate bills, vendor and supplier payments, and invoice collections. To put it simply, it aims to serve as a “financial operating system” for businesses.
Since its launch six months ago, the startup has onboarded hundreds of customers in a wide range of industries, and it now plans quicker growth after banking a US$17 million seed round. The round was led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund and Tiger Global, with debt financing provided by Cauris.
Kinfolk, Soma Capital, Ingressive Capital and Magic Fund also participated in the round, as well as some notable angels including Michael Seibel (YC CEO – Float is an alumni, and founder Jesse Ghansah has been through the accelerator twice), Sandy Kory (Horizon Partners), Karim Atiyeh and Eric Glyman (founders of Ramp), Gregory Rockson (mPharma) and Zach Lipson and Ross Lipson (founders of Dutchie).
Ghansah said the company will use the new capital to speed up the development of its cash management platform and launch new credit products tailored for specific business verticals and industries.
“Float set out on a mission to provide more cashflow and liquidity for millions of businesses across the continent to help them grow and reach their true potential,” he said.
“With this new funding, we will continue to refine both our credit and software products to deliver the best experiences for our fast-growing customer base. We are excited to be the growth partner of choice for businesses across Africa.”
Float hit US$6 million in credit spend and cash advanced to businesses in the first six months of going live, and has also seen its payment transaction volume increase 26x as more customers use Float to manage both their local and international business payments.
