Duplo, a Nigerian startup striving to digitize payment flows for B2B enterprises, has raised a pre-seed round of US$1.3 million.
The pre-seed investment was led by Oui Capital, an early-stage pan-African venture capital firm, and also included MyAsia VC, Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, and Mono CEO Abdul Hassan.
After Duplo was confirmed as a participant in its newest program, along with a slew of other African entrepreneurs, Y Combinator became an investor.
Founded in 2021 by Yele Oyekola and Tunde Akinnuwa, Duplo is enabling B2B businesses to automate payment inflows, reconcile at scale, and provide a streamlined experience for business clients.
“We’re attempting to make cash obsolete in Africa, where many distribution enterprises rely significantly on cash for obvious reasons.”
“Because everyone understands how expensive cash is and how difficult it is to move with concerns like theft and fraud, we’re focusing on distributors, merchants, and aggregators to stop the use of cash in this value chain,” Oyekola said.
The company also confirmed its participation in the Y Combinator accelerator’s W22 batch in Silicon Valley.
Duplo plans to utilize the funds to improve its product, develop its technology, expand its sales capacity, and expand into other markets.
