Ghana’s OZÉ raises $700k seed round

GHANA-BASED FINTECH STARTUP OZÉ RAISES $700 000 SEED ROUND

Accra-based fintech startup OZÉ announced in January that it had closed a $700 000 seed round which it intends to use to grow its team, expand into Nigeria and promote the iOS version of its business app.

Investors who participated in the deal include Ingressive Capital, MEST, Anorak Ventures, Rising Tide Africa, and Matusa Sarl.

The fintech startup was founded in 2018 by CEO Meghan McCormick and COO Dave Emnett. OZÉ’s business app enables small enterprises to track sales, expenses and customer information. The startup then analyses this data and provides tailored recommendations, reports and business education. In addition, using data and machine learning, the fintech firm can predict the user’s business credit risk and provide them with affordable capital from its banking partners.

The startup claims its award-winning business app and proprietary credit risk algorithm make it profitable for banks to make no-collateral loans to small businesses.

“The OZÉ Flywheel makes profitable lending to MSMEs possible for banks. Using OZÉ already screens for the type of entrepreneurs banks should want to lend to and as entrepreneurs keep using OZÉ they can access more funds at a lower risk to the bank,” says McCormick.

OZÉ says it has over 25 000 registered users and has recorded more than 250 000 transactions worth more than $50-million since its launch. The startup further claims that 97% of the business that have used its platform for at least nine months are growing, profitable, or both. Last year OZÉ piloted a small loan portfolio with no defaults and a projected annual 43% ROI. ai