Ivory Coast-Based Payments Fintech Secures $5 Million From Its Pre-Series A Funding Round

Juraya, a payment financial technology (fintech) startup in Ibol, recently closed its pre-series A round with an additional $5 million in capital. This brings the total capital raised by this fintech startup, which specializes in business-to-business payments, to $7 million in this series.

Senegalese footballer Edouard Mendy joins the series

Julaya, a payment fintech startup based in Côte d’Ivoire, recently raised an additional $5 million in funding, bringing its pre-series A funding round to The company has closed its pre-series A funding round. With this latest funding, Julaya has raised a total of $7 million in this funding round.

The funding round was led by European venture capital fund Speedinvest, with participation from EQ2 Ventures and Kibo Ventures, as well as angel syndicates Unpopular Ventures and Jedar Capital. The round was led by Speedinvest. Existing Juraya investors in the round included Orange Ventures, Saviu, and 50 Partners. Edouard Mendy, goalkeeper for Senegalese and English soccer club Chelsea, also participated in this round.

Going beyond the usual card services

According to acommentary on Techcrunch, Julaya’s co-founder and CEO said that bringing a standard card service to mobile money users in West Africa has transformed the fintech startup. Leopoldi, however, offered his own thoughts on why it was important for Juraya to offer more than just standard card services.

“Our mindset or strategy for cards is to offer a full range of services. Because I don’t think that if it’s just cards, we won’t be able to build a great startup that will have the traction that we would like to have in the United States, for example. The card payment industry is still developing, with the exception of South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt a little bit, and you might be able to grow your business with it, but in our region [French-speaking Africa] it is almost impossible,” Leopoldi reportedly said in an interview with Techcrunch. He reportedly stated.

Regarding Mendi’s participation in Juraya’s Pre-Series A round, Leopoldi thought it showed how “visionary” the goalkeeper is. The fact that Mendi is Senegalese, the CEO said, will also encourage other Africans to follow in his footsteps and become investors.

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Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Editorial photo credit: Agre guy thony roger / Shutterstock.com