Nigerian Fintech Founded By Stripe And AWS Alumni, Raises $1.5M In Pre-Seed Round

Nigerian fintech startup Cleva has raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by San Francisco-based 1984 Ventures.

Founded by Tolu Alabi and Phillip Abel,  Stripe, and AWS alums in 2023, Cleva’s product provides a way for Africans to navigate hyperinflation challenges.

Africans face persistent challenges in receiving international payments for their skills and products.

According to the startup, it is estimated that the market for facilitating payments for remote workers and freelancers in Africa will be an $18 billion opportunity.

Nigerian Startup Cleva

Cleva is a USD banking platform for emerging markets, starting in Africa, allowing users to open an account to receive international payments from clients, employers, and investors across the globe.

“The problem that we’re trying to solve, which is enabling people to receive international payments, is not a Nigerian problem nor an African one,”  Alabi told TechCrunch.

“It’s a global problem; people in Latin America, Asia, and even Canada need to receive dollars for their work and service. We’re starting with Nigeria because we know the market, and it’s also a big market.”

The startup has initially launched its services to Nigerians, with onboarding requiring a Bank Verification Number and a government-issued ID.

In the four months since its launch, it has facilitated the opening of US-based accounts for thousands of Nigerians, processing over $1 million in monthly payments.

According to Alabi, they also experienced monthly revenue growth of 100%.

“The impressive early growth is a testament to the team’s unique capacity to execute across Africa and the US,” Aaron Michel, a partner at 1984 Ventures, told TechCrunch.

Y Combinator also participated in Cleva’s pre-seed round.

Cleva’s Future

Alabi highlighted that FinTech differentiates itself from the competition due to customer experience and business model.

Abel said that Cleva has several upcoming products in its pipeline to diversify revenue streams, including USD cards and savings in US assets.

Also, Cleva will soon target Africans in the diaspora and other upcoming products, allowing users to create professional invoices and send USD globally.

“Long term, we are open to Cleva evolving from just being a product-only service to being a platform issuing APIs to do a bunch of other things that help us distribute services across other African countries or around the world,” Abel concluded.