Klasha, based in Lagos and San Francisco, has raised an extra $2.1 million to round up its $4.5 million seed round.
The fund was raised from a group of international investors including Greycroft, Seedcamp, Plug and Play, Berrywood Capital, and Breega, and was led by American Express (AMEX) Ventures, the strategic investment department of American Express, and Global Ventures, a MENA-focused VC.
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The startup, which launched in 2021 and has a customer base of roughly 45,000 customers, up 4x from last October, services enterprises and individuals through a suite of products connected by a single API.
Klasha is dedicated to assisting merchants from across the world in selling online to African customers and receiving payments in local African currencies, all while providing super-fast last-mile delivery to African customers.
Merchants outside of Africa can use its KlashaCheckout software to accept payments from Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and Kenya.
The company claims that merchant additions are up 20% month over month, and transaction volume is up 17.5 percent.
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Over 1,700 retailers have used Klasha to complete over 210,000 transactions.
Users in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya were able to establish virtual cards, fund them with their local currencies, and send and receive money using Klasha’s consumer product last year.
