South African Startup Scale Raises $700K to Expand Across Africa

STARTUP VENTURE CAPITALOctober 7, 2024 at 5:27 PM UTC

TLDR

Scale secures $700,000 pre-seed funding for expansion into Kenya, Zambia, and Côte d’Ivoire.
The fintech startup aims to revolutionize Africa’s payments industry by simplifying card issuance infrastructure.
Scale's platform enables businesses to issue cards in weeks, streamlining a process that typically takes 18 months.

South African fintech startup Scale has secured $700,000 in pre-seed funding to accelerate its expansion into Kenya, Zambia, and Côte d’Ivoire. The funding round was led by 54 Collective and First Circle Capital, with participation from Sunny Side Venture Partners and angel investors.

Founded in 2022, the startup aims to transform Africa’s payments industry by providing infrastructure to simplify the card issuance process for businesses. It positions itself as an issuer orchestration platform, offering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to address critical payment use cases across the continent.

Launching a card product traditionally takes around 18 months and requires extensive technical expertise and partnerships, but Scale’s platform enables businesses to issue cards in a matter of weeks.

Key Takeaways

Scale’s rapid expansion and focus on simplifying card issuance offer a much-needed solution in Africa’s fintech sector, where businesses struggle to quickly launch and manage card products. With the market projected to reach $65 billion by 2030, Scale plans to tap into this growth by offering fast, sustainable card issuance solutions. The platform addresses a significant gap in Africa’s payment card penetration, which is the lowest globally.

Venture Capital

Scale

First Circle Capital

54 Collective

Sunny Side Venture Partners

Fintech

Payment Infrastructure

South Africa

Startups