Nigeria’s Sudo Africa, a fintech startup that provides card-issuing API for developers and businesses recently announced raising $3.7 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by San Francisco-based Global Founders Capital (GFC). Other participating VCs include Picus Capital, LoftyInc Capital, Rallycap Ventures, Kepple Africa, Berrywood Capital, ZedCrest, Suya Ventures, and several African fintech founders — like Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Ham Serunjogi, and Odun Eweniyi.
Traditionally, issuing debit cards has been a costly, time-consuming, and inflexible process reserved for major companies. Smaller firms and startups would normally be denied access to this, but that is about to change.
Sudo Africa is providing programmable cards at a low cost to all types of businesses, regardless of their size or revenue. Leveraging an open application programming interface (API) and a readily available sandbox environment, businesses will be able to create unique features which enable them to issue physical and virtual cards to their users in days rather than months.
About Sudo Africa
Sudo Africa is an open API platform that allows its users to embed powerful financial features into their products.
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Businesses can use its platform to create, manage, and distribute physical and virtual cards, including Verve, MasterCard, and VISA. These cards have extensive spending controls and real-time authorizations, giving businesses complete control over the process of using their cards.
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The company was founded in 2020 by Aminu Bakori and Kabir Shittu; from their frustrations and challenges faced with card issuance at a previous start-up, they recognised that other founders might be experiencing the same problem, and it deepened their conviction to launch the service.
“We tried to get customized debit cards at our previous startup and could not believe how incredibly hard the process was. And we decided to fix this major headache for other founders and make sure they never go through the unnecessary strain. It is almost unbelievable but even as I speak to you, we still have not gotten the cards and it has been more than two years.” says CEO and co-founder Aminu Bakori.
The Kaduna based fintech allows any small business to start issuing cards to its employees and customers for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to customer loyalty programs, expense management services, buy now pay later schemes for merchants, and digital wallets for virtual banks, among others.
According to COO and co-founder Kabir Shittu — “its biggest advantage is its flexibility and ability to customize solutions to fit companies’ needs”
“In terms of pricing, with a flat monthly fee of ₦50,000, companies can get onboarded and create virtual cards as low as ₦50 and physical cards for as low as ₦1,000.”
Expanding Across Africa
The recently raised $3.7 million pre-seed round, according to Kabir Shittu, will be used to enter new markets across Africa, expand the current team, and engineer marketing and growth.
“Our concern right now is to expand into other African countries. So we’re looking at before the end of this year, we’ll probably be in three or four more African countries.”
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Sudo Africa’s customers span a number of sectors — which include fintech, microfinance banks, non-tech enterprises, government agencies, logistics companies, commercial banks, and e-commerce companies.
When its issued cards are used to make an online or POS transaction, the company collects interchange fees, and it takes authorization fees when spending and location-based controls are performed. According to Shittu, Sudo collects lower card production and personalization fees than incumbents.
Sudo Africa is currently the only company in this market that solely provides virtual and physical cards to Nigerians. Despite being founded in Zambia, Union54 has consumers all around Africa. Flutterwave claims to assist merchants in 35 African markets in issuing virtual cards, with physical cards currently available only in Nigeria.
Thus, it is expected that Sudo Africa—which is setting an example for other fintech and startups trying to make a name for themselves outside the country—will want to expand to other African markets with this investment, not as a result of competition, but rather necessity.