Ghana's Fintech Dash Raises $32.8M to Build Unified Payment Network for African Consumers

Africa is a continent with a population of over 1.3 billion people. However, unlike in the western world where online or offline payments are made with debit or credit cards facilitated using network payment processors such as Visa or Mastercard, the majority of payments are made using bank accounts and telecommunications-led mobile wallets, often called mobile money.

But making payments via mobile money wallets and banks comes with its own sets of challenges. For example, there are over 200 different kinds of mobile money wallets, none of which work with one another. And that's why one African FinTech startup is on a mission to solve this problem by providing a unified payment network.

Enter Dash, a Ghana-based fintech that is building a unified alternative payment network for African consumers. With Dash, users can send and receive money (regardless of currency) all in a single app. Dash users can also pay for goods and services both online and offline.

To further grow its platform, the Accra, Ghana-based Dash announced recently that it has raised $32.8 million in funding, making it one of the largest seed rounds for an African technology startup. The oversubscribed seed round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Global Founders Capital and 4DX Ventures.

Other investors in the round include ASK Capital, Techstars, Guillaume Pousaz's Zinal Growth Partners, Jitendra Gupta of Jupiter Money, Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, the founders of Moss, executives from ProcessOut (acquired by Checkout.com), and the founders of PennyLane. Dash will use the fresh capital infusion to grow its team, launch new features, and expand its footprint across key markets in Africa.

Dash was founded by Prince Boakye Boampong to create a unified payments app to increase efficiency and accessibility for the estimated 1.3 billion Africans currently transacting via digital payments.

Since its launch in 2020, Dash has processed over $1 billion from over 1 million of its users. billion since its launch in 2020, showing exponential month-over-month growth. Currently operating in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, in January 2022 alone, Dash reported a Total Processed Volume (TPV) of over $300 million, up 3X on a monthly basis from Q4 2021.

(Source: Tech Startups)