South African fintech, Scale, has raised $700,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by 54 Collective and First Circle Capital, with participation from Side Venture Partners.
Founded a year ago by Barbara Woollams and Miranda Perumal, Scale is an issuer orchestration platform providing infrastructure to streamline the card issuance process for businesses throughout the continent.
The startup has partnerships with investors, banks, networks, and payment technology providers, positioning itself as a modern card issuing orchestration platform and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) enabler.
“With the backing of our esteemed investors and partners, we are well-positioned to expedite our ecosystem engagement, build trust with African businesses and continue to strongly focus on solving major pain points when enabling card rails by delivering unrivalled, world-class service,” CEO Perumal said.
As the fintech market is projected to reach $65 billion by 2030, with card issuance platforms expected to handle approximately 35% of all card-based transactions by 2029, Scale aims to capitalize on this growth by providing seamless, commercially viable solutions tailored to the unique needs of businesses and their customers across Africa.
Africa has the lowest payment card penetration per capita globally, with the region’s numerous fintechs not finding it easy to launch and sustain card-issuance operations.
“It takes approximately 18 months for any business to launch a card product, if achievable at all. This complex process requires technical expertise and a strong network across a wide range of partners for card management,” said First Circle Capital’s Selma Ribica.
“Customers can plug into this product and launch a card within a few weeks, reducing time to revenue for Scale’s clients.”
Scale also has the backing of the pan African VC firm, 54 Collective, which recently rebranded from Founders Factory Africa.
FUNDING | Founders Factory Rebrands to 54 Collective, Transforms to a Full-Fledged VC Firm for Early-Stage Startups
Founders Factory has an active portfolio of over 50 ventures across 10 countries. To date, the firm has supported more than 70 ventures and helped its portfolio… pic.twitter.com/MacL65hA35
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) August 9, 2024
“The Scale team, led by a rockstar female founder [with] deep sector expertise and proven bias toward action truly excites us, and we look forward to seeing Scale become a critical enabler for fintechs,” said Hetal Patel, chief investment officer at 54 Collective.
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