• LemFi

  Participated · Seed · Nov 2021

  Founded in 2021 by Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran, LemFi is a fintech app designed for immigrants and global citizens to send money and access financial services. The company serves more than two million customers in the US, UK and Canada and facilitates transfers to over 30 markets. Earlier this year LemFi reported passing $1 billion in monthly transactions and experiencing 30% month-on-month growth in activity. The startup has been expanding through acquisitions, including Bureau Buttercrane (bringing regulatory approval from Ireland’s central bank) and British credit fintech Pillar (bringing an FCA credit licence and immigrant credit-assessment capabilities). LemFi is pursuing growth beyond remittances and competing with players such as Taptap Send, WorldRemit, and Remitly.

• Mono

  Participated · Series A · Oct 2021

  Mono provides open‑finance APIs that let businesses and developers access customers' bank account data and payments; its standout products are DirectPay, which enables in‑app bank transfer collection, and Statement Pages, which lets businesses access financial accounts without a developer. The company targets Nigerian customers and is expanding across Africa, having piloted in Ghana and naming Kenya, Egypt and South Africa among planned markets; Mono aims to be present in five African countries by the end of next year. Mono has processed over 200 million financial data transactions for more than 270 businesses and developers and connected over 150,000 bank accounts in the last two months. The startup reports 45x year‑on‑year growth in connected accounts, roughly 30 staff (it doubled headcount from the prior year), and revenue that has grown tenfold since its last raise — current revenue equals what it did in the prior three months combined. The company launched last year and is positioned as a Plaid‑style open banking provider for Africa, pursuing vertical expansion into enterprise solutions for FMCGs, law firms and traditional industries. Mono provides a single API that streamlines financial and identity data—account statements, real-time balances, historical transactions, income, expenses and account-owner identification—with users' consent for companies and developers. Launched in August 2020 and accepted into Y Combinator, the startup has partnered with more than 16 financial institutions and serves over 100 businesses including Carbon, Aella Credit, Credpal, Renmoney, Autochek and Inflow Finance. Mono has connected over 100,000 financial accounts and analyzed more than 66 million financial transactions to date. While its current focus is open-banking APIs, the founders say they intend to become a broader data company, expanding into non-financial data verticals such as telco open data and additional integrations with payment gateways and other fintechs. The company plans pan-African expansion, prioritizing Ghana (going live soon) and Kenya. Mono will use funding to reinforce its financial and identity offerings and to launch new products for diverse business verticals. Mono builds a single API that streamlines financial data access—account statements, real-time balance, historical transactions, income, expenses and account-owner identification—after users log in with their internet or mobile credentials. The beta launched in August and the company says it has partnered with more than 16 Nigerian financial institutions and serves over 100 businesses including Carbon, Renmoney, Flutterwave and Indicina. Mono processes about 5 million data sets per hour and has a team of 13 staff across Nigeria and India. Its initial clients are mainly lenders, with some proptech and healthtech customers; the startup is rolling out a one-click signup feature via partnerships with two leading savings and investment platforms. The founders plan pan‑African expansion to Ghana and Kenya before the end of Q1 and aim to become a global company. Mono faces user trust challenges around entering internet‑banking credentials and intends to use YC backing and offline marketing to improve credibility; a seed round is in the works to support expansion and hiring.

No current team members are available.