Ghanaian digital microfinance and banking fintech startup, BezoMoney has secured a US$200,000 seed funding from US-based Goodsoil Venture Capital to create more innovative products and grow the business.
BezoMoney said in the statement that the funding will be used to acquire the Payment and Financial Technology Service Providers (PFTSP) license in Ghana, and to build and deploy new products.
The new products in the pipeline include BezoCredit, an interest-free credit product, and BezoInvest, an investment product, which will allow users to invest their savings.
“In addition, the funding will be used to grow the company’s user base, expand its team, and scale across the country,” the statement said.
BezoMoney was founded in 2019 by two Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) programme graduate, Mubarak Sumaila and Diana D. Osei, as a fintech company that builds and provides digital financial services and products for unbanked and younger consumers.
Since its inception, the startup has established products that provide social mobility for the unbanked and digitizes transactions of informal savings groups, popular known as Susu in Ghana.
Its flagship product called BezoSusu is a digital-personal saving and group savings product that allows users in the informal sector to reach their savings goals.
According to the fintech, BezoSusu is built on USSD and is integrated with Mobile Money to allow users to transact via their Mobile Money wallets.
In order to provide its services and products, BezoMoney partners with existing financial institutions and mobile operators to meet the regulatory requirements.
“BezoMoney’s vision is to become a digital bank for the unbanked as well as the younger generation; a digital bank that provides financial products and services that span across the entire financial spectrum, meeting the needs of its users on their journey to financial stability,” it said in the statement.
Meanwhile, a director at Goodsoil VC, Orla Enright acknowledged how BezoMoney provides the unbanked and young people with easy access to powerful and flexible wealth-generating tools that are typically hard to access.
“We are excited to partner with BezoMoney to accelerate their growth and assist them in their scale,” he said.
Currently, BezoMoney is working on beta testing and launching BezoSusu 2.0, and also launching the BezoSmart Series that features a podcast to provide financial literacy content to the informal sector and to young individuals, and establishing partnership relations with financial institutions and mobile money providers.
