Nigerian fintech startup, Mono had announced February, its acceptance into Y Combinator stating that it wants to the Plaid for Africa. Three months later, the company now has a different mission: to power the internet economy in Africa - as it closes a $2 million in seed investment toward that goal.

This investment is coming nine months after the company raised $500,000 in pre-seed last September and two months after Mono received the $125,000 from YC. Mono’s total investment moves up to $2.625 million, and investors in this new round include Entrée Capital (one of the investors in Kuda’s seed round).

Babs Ogundeyi, Kuda co-founder and CEO, Gbenga Oyebode, partner at TCVP; and Eric Idiahi, co-founder and partner at Verod Capital, Africa-based VC Lateral Capital also invested after taking part in Mono’s pre-seed.

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Open finance players like Mono are trying to improve financial inclusion and connectivity on the continent where more than half of the population is unbanked or underbanked. Open finance thrives on the notion that access to a financial ecosystem via open APIs and new routes to move money, access financial information and make borrowing decisions reduces the barriers and costs of entry for the underbanked. 

The company which streamlines various financial data in a single API for companies and third-party developers was launched in 2020. Mono allows users to retrieve information like account statements, real-time balance, historical transactions, income, expenses and account owner identification with users’ consent.