Scale Secures $700,000 Pre-Seed Funding to Transform Africa’s Payments Landscape

Scale, an Issuer Orchestration Platform and pioneering payments enabler, has announced a successful Pre-Seed funding raise of $700,000, led by prominent early-stage investors 54 Collective and First Circle Capital, joined by Sunny Side Venture Partners and prominent expert angels from the industry. 

As Scale celebrates its first anniversary in October, this significant milestone sets the stage for an exciting journey ahead. The fundraise is instrumental in accelerating Scale’s market entry into Kenya, Zambia, and Cote d’Ivoire, where the company is poised to go live and transform the payments landscape, enabling critical payment use cases at speed.

In less than a year, Scale has strategically secured investment, banking, network, and payment technology partners, positioning itself as a modern card issuing orchestration and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) enabler. Simultaneously, Scale offers a seamless and commercially sustainable solution tailored to the unique needs of businesses and their customers across Africa.

Miranda Perumal, CEO of Scale, believes the investment is testament to Scale’s value proposition and the venture’s commitment to propelling African fintechs to new heights. 

It’s not just what we do; it’s ingrained in the very fiber of our values. 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.

Miranda Perumal, CEO, Scale

At 54 Collective, we believe in backing ventures poised to disrupt industries and drive real impact across the continent, including through widening financial inclusion and enabling entrepreneurship and business growth. The Scale team, led by a rockstar female founder, deep sector expertise and proven bias toward action truly excite us, and we look forward to seeing Scale become a critical enabler for fintechs.

Hetal Patel, Chief Investment Officer, 54 Collective

Selma Ribica of First Circle Capital, notes that the African continent as a whole has the lowest payment card penetration per capita in the world. African fintechs and corporates wanting to enhance their product offering by adding cards, face a range of challenges which slows down their ability to launch and manage the service. 

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. Scale offers fintechs and corporates a Card-as-a-Service platform, a pre-approved card management scheme product including all the typical card features. 

Customers can plug into this product and launch a card within a few weeks, reducing time to revenue for Scale’s clients. We were convinced by Scale’s team expertise and track record in this field of card issuing, and believe their technology-led and partnership-led approach is the best way to scale this business.

Selma Ribica, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, First Circle Capital,

Sadaharu Saiki, Founder & GP of Sunny Side Venture Partners describes one of Africa’s most pressing challenges as access to and simplicity of payments. Even as numerous fintech solutions emerge, the card still remains the gold standard, especially as cross border transactions become an increasing necessity. 

Card penetration within the African market hasn’t been an easy job at all – until now. Scale is tackling the complex task of card issuing with remarkable ease, across multiple countries, and significantly improving the lives of people across the continent, Saiki says.

The combination of the team’s decades of collective experience, spanning more than 40 African nations, with their dedication to moving Africa forward, Scale has the ability to change what was once an ambitious goal, into an achievable reality.

Sadaharu Saiki, Founder & GP, Sunny Side Venture Partners

Scale is actively engaging global investors and partners for similar collaborations, aiming to empower any-tech business with payment and card use cases in Africa. The company’s robust pipeline, bolstered by its scheme and bank partnerships, sets it apart as a formidable player in the fintech industry.

We are not just another startup; Scale is fuelled through Venture Capital and built on the foundation of an unyielding passion to empower Africa’s fintechs. With our unmatched expertise, finely-honed skills, and core focus on execution, we are more than a funded operation—we are a promise kept.

Miranda Perumal, CEO, Scale

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