Cowrywise, a Nigerian digital savings and investment platform, has raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding. Quona Capital led the round as Tsadik Foundation, Gumroad CEO Sahil Lavingia, and a syndicate of Nigerian angel investors locally and in the diaspora participated. The aim of this funding is to expand its product offering, support the onboarding of more fund managers, and build out its investment management infrastructure.
Founded by Razaq Ahmed and Edward Popoola in 2017, Cowrywise gives Nigerian’s access to a range of goal-oriented savings and investment products. The startup currently has 19 different mutual funds available through its platform, which allows users to get started saving and investing with as little as NGN100 (US$0.25). The Cowrywise platform leverages internal algorithms to recommend investment products that meet the individualized needs of each consumer, many of whom had previously never made an investment.
The company previously raised more than $500,000 through a combination of equity financing and grants.
In 2018, Cowrywise closed an Angel round of $50,000 led by Microtraction and another $120,000 seed round from Y Combinator followed by Kairos in December of the same year. They received undisclosed funding from K-50 Ventures in April 2019, before receiving an $80,000 grant from UK-DFID backed accelerator, Catalyst Fund. A first for a Nigerian startup.
