CrowdForce will use the capital to increase its PayForce agent network three-fold this year to deepen its financial service offerings to underserved Nigerian communities. 

LAGOS, 16 February 2022 — CrowdForce (the Company), a Nigerian Y Combinator-backed agency banking company, today announced it closed a $3.6 million pre-series-A investment. The round, split between equity and debt, was led by Aruwa Capital Management with participation from HAVAÍC and AAIC. CrowdForce has the largest liquidity among Nigerian agent banking networks, leveraging over 1.7Trillion Naira via its partners.

CrowdForce will use the capital to expand its team, geographical operations and marketing to increase its agent network. CrowdForce aims to grow its 7,000 active agents three-fold this year. The Company will distribute more point of sale (PoS) terminals to small businesses – gas stations, pharmacies, and aggregators/resellers – which act as mobile bank branches. CrowdForce has been cash positive since 2020 and served 1.9m, unique customers, in 25 Nigerian states to date. The Company’s user growth has increased 25% month-on-month. 

Access to financial services in Nigeria remains a challenge. There are 4.8 bank branches and 19 ATMs per 100,000 adults, compared to the world average of 13 bank branches and 40 ATMs. Less than 1/3 of Nigerian adults have access to a bank branch or ATM within one kilometer of where they live. Unreliable infrastructure also undermines trust in the banking system – roughly 15% of card transactions fail on a POS. According to EFINA, 63.2m of 99.6m adults in Nigeria are financially included. 

Over the last three years, CrowdForce has partnered with cash-heavy small businesses, converting them to mobile bank branches while safely storing their cash on a PayForce digital wallet. The Company has partnered with 19,000 fuel stations, 20,0000 resellers, and 6,000 pharmacies to broaden its distribution network. CrowdForce aims to bring financial services within one kilometer, or within 15 minutes, of all Nigerians. 

“Fintechs and challenger banks are emerging in Africa to deliver better financial services via digital rails. It’s a fantastic development in the market, but cash is clearly still king in Nigeria. 97% of retail transactions happen offline. There is a clear need to build an offline distribution network to enable fintech and challengers to reach the mass market – this is exactly what we’re doing at CrowdForce. and this round will accelerate our momentum even more.” Oluwatomi Ayorinde, CrowdForce CEO/co-founder.

“We are excited to lead this investment in CrowdForce. We see significant value in the product as it is solving a real problem by providing access to critical financial services in rural areas that have been overlooked by traditional financial institutions. CrowdForce is actively deepening financial inclusion through its products and services, and has unique competitive advantages through its proprietary technology and extensive agent distribution network across the country,” said Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes,  Aruwa Capita, Founder and Managing Partner.