Waza comes out of stealth with $8M to power global trade for African businesses
Summary
It says its targeting a $7 trillion market with the potential to generate $250 billion in revenue.As TechCrunch reported earlier this year, cross-border fintech and payments is currently a hot segment, particularly for Y Combinator-backed startups in the last batches. And the market, projected to surpass $250 billion by 2027, is seeing fintechs increasingly challenging traditional banks, especially in the B2B sector.Waza, which began its operations in January 2023 after participating in Y Combinators winter batch that month, will aim to capitalize on this trend and make its mark in the global payments market, starting with Africa.In its first month, Wazas total payment volume amounted to $280,000, co-founder and CEO Maxwell Obi told TechCrunch. The CEO also said that Wazas transaction volumes and revenues, which come from FX spread and a 0.75% to 1% take rate, are growing by an average of 20% monthly.The startup facilitates business payments and liquidity management across six continents for hundreds of clients, cutting across three categories with different needs.First are multinational organizations like U.S.-headquartered airlines that operate locally in Africa with liquidity issues; second are importers and traders that transact with suppliers from countries like India, China and the U.K.; third are other fintechs and developers that need API infra to build their cross-border payment solutions. Fintechs providing similar solutions include AZA Finance, Verto and Conduit, which recently entered Africa from Latin America.Cross-border payments in the context of trade is for businesses to pay their suppliers fast and expect the product to come quickly as exchange rate plays a part in how much they make. The round includes $3 million in equity from Y Combinator, Byld Ventures, Norrsken Africa, Heirloom VC, Plug and Play Tech Center, and Olive Tree Capital.