PNGME Raises $15M to Expand African Fintech Data Infrastructure

The Growing Landscape of Financial Data APIs in Africa

The process of unbundling financial data via APIs and leveraging this data to create valuable, data-driven products within the African market is experiencing significant growth. This expansion is fueled by substantial investments being secured by key industry players seeking to scale their operations.

Pngme Secures $15 Million Series A Funding

Just under a year following a $3 million seed funding round, San Francisco- and Africa-based fintech company, Pngme, has successfully raised an additional $15 million. This new funding is intended to bolster the company’s financial data infrastructure initiatives. Pngme also positions itself as a machine learning-as-a-service platform.

Investment Details and Participants

Octopus Ventures spearheaded the Series A funding round, with continued investment from Lateral Capital, EchoVC, Raptor Group, and Two Small Fish Ventures. Further participation came from investors including Unshackled Ventures, Future Africa, Lagos-based Aruwa Capital, and The51.

Pngme also benefited from contributions from angel investors, notably Hayden Simmons of RallyCap, Dan Kahn from Plaid, Richard Talbot – former COO of RBC Capital Markets – and Kyle Ellicott of Intersect VC.

Pngme’s Market Focus

Pngme’s platform is specifically designed to serve fintech companies and other financial institutions operating throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Founders Brendan Playford and Cate Rung previously indicated the company was expanding its operations in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana.

Core Product Offerings

Currently, Pngme offers three primary products to its clients in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. These include its established API and mobile SDK, alongside a newly introduced customer management platform.

The company believes that integrating these three products will encourage greater adoption and utilization of personalized user experiences and innovative financial products by its customers.

Drawing Parallels to Asian Super-Apps

In a recent discussion, Playford drew comparisons between Pngme’s vision and the personalized experiences offered by Alipay and WeChat in recent years.

Both of these platforms proactively offer relevant financial service recommendations and present appropriate products based on user needs and preferences.

The Importance of Data-Driven User Experiences

“A highly data-driven user experience is crucial. Every financial institution and bank aspires to deliver this same level of personalization,” Playford explained, referencing the Chinese super-app models.

“Whether it’s instant loans, savings options, or overdrafts, it all centers around a user experience tailored to a specific product. Ultimately, financial institutions are focused on reducing customer acquisition costs and maximizing customer lifetime value.”

Why Now? The Growing Demand for Customization

Playford highlights the increasing importance of mirroring this successful playbook. He asks why this approach is gaining prominence now?

Financial institutions and fintechs across Africa are increasingly focused on delivering fully customized user experiences and financial products that cater to the unique needs of their customers. This requires robust data infrastructure.

The Role of Machine Learning

Machine learning models are essential for acquiring, retaining, and maximizing the lifetime value of customers. However, these processes can be both costly and time-consuming, forcing companies to choose between building infrastructure and directly serving their customers.

Pngme’s Solution: Data Aggregation at Scale

Pngme empowers financial institutions and fintechs to collect and aggregate financial data efficiently. The company’s mobile SDK and data processing pipelines gather alternative financial data and integrate it with other sources, creating a comprehensive view of an individual’s financial behavior.

“The primary challenge we address is the high cost of building this infrastructure. Finding skilled data science and data engineering talent globally is difficult. Offering data infrastructure as a service is effective because it provides access to these services through a subscription model, eliminating the need for a large, dedicated team.”

Pngme’s Funding Position and Competitive Landscape

With the completion of its Series A round, Pngme’s total funding now stands at $18.5 million, making it the most well-funded company in this fintech category across the African continent. Other notable startups in this space include South African-based Stitch, and Nigerian companies Okra, Mono, and OnePipe.

Differentiation Through Data Connectivity

While each platform is expanding its data offerings, Playford emphasizes Pngme’s commitment to differentiating itself since February.

“We’ve focused on not only collecting directly observable data but also on connecting to data from platforms like Mono and Okra, as well as data from banks. We merge all this data and then apply machine learning models for our clients, positioning ourselves as a comprehensive data processing infrastructure for banks and fintechs.”

A Validated Proposition

Playford’s assessment of Pngme’s unique value proposition aligns with the perspectives of other founders in the industry. However, the long-term sustainability of these differentiations remains to be seen.

Current Clients and Partnerships

Pngme’s solutions have gained traction with several prominent organizations, including tier-one banks in Nigeria and South Africa, fintechs such as Kuda, Umba, Renmoney, and CredPal, and credit bureaus like TransUnion Africa.

Future Plans: Expansion and Innovation

Pngme intends to utilize the new investment to expand its customer base. This will involve strengthening its executive team with the addition of Lorraine Kageni Maina as CSO and Nick Masson as CTO.

Alongside these key hires, Pngme is actively expanding its data science, engineering, and sales teams globally. COO Rung notes that Pngme’s infrastructure has already processed billions of data points from hundreds of financial institutions across sub-Saharan Africa. The company plans to further develop its Insights Library product and broaden its third-party data connections to new markets in the coming year.

Octopus Ventures’ Perspective

For Octopus Ventures, the lead investor in this round, Pngme represents the critical need for actionable data to support the rapid growth of digital fintech services in Africa.

Tosin Agbabiaka explained, “The elegance of the technology solution, combined with an exceptional team and strong market traction with large institutions, reinforces our belief that Pngme will power the next generation of financial services in Africa, providing access to banking and lending for millions more people.”