YC-backed fintech Bujeti raises $2M for its company playing cards and spend administration platform

African company playing cards and spend administration platform Bujeti has raised $2 million in seed funding. The startup, concerned with how African companies, together with SMBs, startups and enterprises, handle and deal with funds, acquired this capital from lead investor Y Combinator and different backers, together with Entrée Capital, Voltron Capital, Unpopular VC, Kima Ventures, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, Alan Rutledge, Tristan Walker of Heirloom VC and Mono CEO Abdul Hassan.

Bujeti targets companies in sectors like healthcare, logistics, agriculture and building, and facilitates the issuance of company playing cards to their workers and contractors, streamlining spending processes. The platform consists of options that assist these companies management and handle bills successfully by implementing spending limits, restrictions and approval flows for various stakeholders within the enterprise chain, together with executives, employees, contractors and distributors.

The startup, in an announcement, expressed that the newest funding will speed up its development, increase its market presence and improve its choices. The roadmap for upcoming options consists of introducing credit score strains for SMBs and creating new merchandise tailor-made for enterprises. 

The 2-year-old fintech, led by founder and CEO Cossi Achille Arouko and COO Samy Chiba, was launched in April 2022. Previous to dedicating their full-time efforts to the YC W23 startup, each executives initiated the event of an MVP whereas of their earlier roles. Chiba was a undertaking supervisor with the French industrial launch service supplier Ariane Area, whereas Arouko labored on the African funds startup Paystack. It was throughout his tenure because the tech lead of Paystack’s commerce, subscriptions and invoices group that Arouko conceived of the concept for Bujeti.

At a time when Paystack was contemplating the discharge of an API for card issuance, Arouko revealed in an interview with TechCrunch that he and his group, whereas managing subscriptions and collections, recognized an important want to help companies in managing their bills. This sparked the preliminary idea of Bujeti. Initially envisioned as a business-to-consumer platform, Bujeti aimed to allow customers to generate playing cards utilizing the Paystack API. Moreover, it sought to handle bills, facilitate on-line remittance funds and automate remittance processes for people outdoors the continent. Nevertheless, it made a pivot to service companies months later. 

“While still serving consumers, I did some research and found other players that were using Paystack as well, one of them being Divvy [now BILL] in the U.S. It was the same idea but was towards businesses,” the chief government mentioned on the decision. “That made me realize that there was also a market for businesses. We used Divvy at Paystack then, and each employee had an account to manage our expenses, cards and reimbursement requests. Seeing Divvy and other platforms tackling expense management in the U.S., Europe and Nigeria, that’s when I thought we could work on that for this market.” Unicorns Ramp and Brex are probably the most notable examples globally.

Company playing cards are normally issued by a enterprise to pick workers, usually higher administration, enabling them to make funds on behalf of the corporate. Whereas companies within the U.S. and EU can rapidly receive a number of playing cards from banks with excessive card penetration, the method is just not as easy in Africa, the place card penetration continues to be low, significantly for conventional companies in agriculture, logistics, healthcare and building (regardless of not being closely tech-oriented, these industries considerably contribute to the GDP of many African international locations).

Because of this, companies typically share a single card to handle this, resulting in safety, management and fraud points. Bujeti’s platform desires to unravel this by permitting African firms to challenge playing cards to their workers at will whereas sustaining management of their spending. 

“What this brings to employees is the freedom of spending. So, a company can set up a budget or a sub-account for a group of employees to spend from. Then set up policies and approval rules around the funds, and let the employees make the payments — that facilitates the operation, speeds up things and prevents them from waiting for someone always to come to approve your expenses,” famous the CEO, who additionally described the platform’s performance in automating reimbursement. 

Within the final eight weeks, Bujeti has onboarded almost 1,000 companies throughout the continent, starting from SMBs to startups akin to Mono, Spleet and Eden Life, famous Arouko, including that the startup goals to achieve ₦200 million (~$200,000) in processed transactions quickly. 

Bujeti’s rivals within the African market embrace startups like Duplo, Flex Finance, Allawee and another YC-backed startup, Boya, based on Arouko. One key differentiator he highlights is that whereas some platforms deal with singular options like expense administration or company playing cards, Bujeti provides each functionalities. In instances the place platforms provide each options, Bujeti units itself aside by offering superior automation options and multi-entity administration. This enables customers to effectively oversee groups throughout numerous areas, departments, or geographies.

Moreover, Bujeti is actively engaged on introducing a multicurrency characteristic. This enhancement will allow companies to pay their employees in several international locations, positioning Bujeti to increase its companies internationally when the chance arises.

Hassan, an investor within the funding spherical and co-founder of Mono and OyaPay (a startup he based with Arouko, now defunct), mentioned of the funding: “Investing in Achille and Bujeti was an obvious choice; they address a significantly fragmented market with capable founders who excel in technical and business aspects. We believe in their potential to transform how businesses handle their finances, and we’re excited to be a part of their journey.”