South African fintech, Revio raised a $5.2M seed to enhance payment solutions in Africa

Revio, a South African fintech startup specialising in payment orchestration, has successfully secured $5.2 million in seed funding to advance its efforts in simplifying and optimising payment processes across the African continent. This comes not up to a year after the startup raised a $1.1 million seed round.

The funding round, led by prominent fintech investors QED Investors and Partech, with participation from existing backers Speedinvest, RaliCap, and Everywhere VC, represents a significant milestone for Revio in its pursuit of improving payment systems for businesses.

Revio, founded just three years ago, has made notable progress in addressing the intricate and fragmented payment landscape in Africa. The continent's payment sector is expected to reach a substantial $146 billion in 2023, highlighting the substantial potential for innovation in this field.

The startup's core offering comprises a single PCI-compliant platform and API that empowers both global and local merchants to access a diverse range of over 70 payment methods. These methods encompass major mobile money products, card schemes, direct bank payments, and wallets, spanning 25 African countries. Additionally, Revio offers a suite of services to assist merchants in optimising their end-to-end payment processes, including intelligent transaction routing, automated failover and retries, and real-time customer engagement workflows. 

The recent funding will play a pivotal role in accelerating Revio's expansion efforts across Africa. The company also intends to enhance its routing logic and enrich its capabilities further to provide increased value to its growing customer base. To support this ambitious growth trajectory, Revio will actively seek top talent both within the continent and in key international markets.

Notably, Revio has evolved its target market strategy, now focusing on serving high-value clients with intricate payment requirements. This shift has already proven successful, with the company experiencing a remarkable 1,000% revenue growth in the past year. Among its notable clientele are four of Africa's largest insurers and two of the continent's largest telecommunications companies.

Furthermore, Revio has its sights set on global retailers serving the African market in its next phase of development. The startup aims to enhance its cross-border reconciliation settlement capabilities, enabling it to cater effectively to the needs of these international players.

Gbenga Ajayi, Partner and Africa Lead at QED Investors, expressed confidence in Revio's potential to reshape the payments landscape in Africa, "Revio is building a platform that can unlock increased e-commerce and digital payment activity on the continent and help global and local merchants reach new customer segments."

With this latest injection of capital, Revio is well-poised to drive innovation and bring greater efficiency to payments across Africa, marking a significant step towards the continent's digital financial future.