Yoco, a South African based point-of-sale payments solution provider, has announced that it recently closed $16 million in Series B funding. This was confirmed by Forbes.
"Having tripled its user base since the beginning of last year, South African fintech startup Yoco has raised $16-million in Series B funding," Forbes wrote.
The round was led by Partech with participation from Orange Digital Ventures, Dutch Development Bank FMO, South African-based FutureGrowth and existing Series A investors Quona Capital and Velocity Capital.
According to Katlego Maphai, CEO for Yoco, the "round represents a vote of confidence in technology ventures operating in this market, servicing the untapped potential of small businesses."
Also read: Goodwell Investments announces new $23M fund for sub-Saharan Africa
They are looking to use the funding to grow their userbase as well as continue with product development.
Founded in 2013, by Bradley Wattrus (CFO), Carl Wazen (Chief Business Officer), Katlego Maphai (CEO) and Lungisa Matshoba (CTO), Yoco has raised at least $26 million in funding to date.
Their previous round of $3.8 million came in form of a convertible note from Quona Capital in December last year. Earlier on, in March 2017, Yoco had also raised a series A of $3 million led by Quona Capital which followed an angel round of $1.7 million that they raised in October 2016.
According to Forbes, Yoco currently has "27,000 merchants on the platform, and is adding about 1,500 a month." The startup which focuses on helping small businesses accept payments, has mobile card readers, a point of sale App and business portal.
The amount raised by African startups is growing every day. This recent round by Yoco brings the aggregate amount of the top 10 funding deals in 2018 to a rough estimate of at least $145 million. (See also: These are Africa’s top 10 funding rounds in 2018 so far).