QED Investors ventures into Africa, backing Nigerian fintech

Having invested in 27 unicorns across 14 countries and more than 180 portfolio companies, QED Investors is now making its first investment in Africa.

The US fintech-focused venture capita,l with almost $5bn assets under management, is now investing in Nigerian fintech TeamApt.

The company operates the country’s largest business payments and banking platform, with more than 400,000 businesses onboarded.

“I am proud to bring Africa to QED and QED to Africa,” QED Investors partner and head of Africa Gbenga Ajayi said.

Ajayi was brought on as a partner earlier this year in an intentional move from QED Investors to focus on investments in Africa.

He said he could not think of a better way to enter the continent than with TeamApt, praising its “impressive” payment and distribution network.

“Enabling a growing digital form of payments for merchants and consumers in Nigeria is exciting, but being able to deepen the financial capability of these merchants, providing them with the everyday tools and credit they need to run their businesses, will be profoundly impactful,” Ajayi added.

Providing an all-in-one business solution, TeamApt aims to digitise Africa’s economy, and capitalise on the country’s high levels of entrepreneurship.

Around 40 per cent of the population owns their own business, and there was more than $800bn in digital transactions annualised for the first quarter of the year.

“QED’s investment proves TeamApt’s opportunity for exponential growth as a world-class financial institution at the forefront of Africa’s economic revolution,” TeamApt CEO Tosin Eniolorunda said. 

The fintech has grown by more than 300 per cent annually since launching in 2015 and is now targeting its first round of international expansion over the coming months.

In a QED Investors blog post, Ajayi explained the need for TeamApt given the issue that roughly 80 percent of payments in Nigeria are still done in cash, but there are only around nine ATMs per 100,000 people.

By comparison, there are 210 ATMs per 100,000 people in Canada.

There is also a lack of card acceptance across the country, so TeamApt provides a solution both with many merchants acting as “human ATMs” and with more sophisticated financial tools such as invoices, payroll and credit for all its businesses.

“Over the past few months, I have been impressed with the team’s focus on execution as well as customer obsession across the entire product spectrum,” Ajayi wrote.

“What they’re building today will help shape the future of payments in Nigeria forever.”