Nigeria's CrowdForce gets $3.6m to scale its agency banking business

CrowdForce’s product, PayForce, a POS-enabled system providing ATM services, transfer, and bill payments, is present in market clusters and small businesses as both can meet high cash demand from customers in areas where bank branches are absent. “With our data crowdsourcing platform, we initially helped companies gather insights in a reliable way, reduced cost and their turnaround time for decision making,” Ayorinde told TechCabal on a call. But to broaden its distribution network, CrowdForce relies on partnerships with cash-heavy small businesses, converting them to mobile bank branches while helping them store their cash on PayForce digital wallets. “Fintechs and challenger banks are emerging in Africa to deliver better financial services via digital rails but cash is clearly still king in Nigeria and 97% of retail transactions happen offline,” Ayorinde said. “There is a clear need to build an offline distribution network to enable fintechs and challengers to reach the mass market – this is exactly what we’re doing at CrowdForce and this round will accelerate our momentum even more.” If you enjoyed reading this article, please share it in your WhatsApp groups and Telegram channels.