South African Startup, Scale, Raises $700,000 In Pre-Seed Funding, Aims For Further Expansion

Scale Raises $700000 In Pre-Seed Funding: African fintech startup Scale has revealed the successful closing of a $700,000 pre-seed funding round, setting the stage for its ambitious plans to simplify card issuance and payments on the continent.

The funding will ensure the company further enhances card issuing orchestration operations to fintechs.

The funding was led by 54 Collective, a sector-agnostic VC firm, and First Circle Capital with participation from Sunny Side Venture Partners and a group of angel investors.

Scale Raises $700000 In Pre-Seed Funding

The funding comes as Scale prepares to expand its operations into key African markets, including Kenya, Zambia, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Miranda Perumal, CEO of Scale, believes the investment is a testament to Scale’s value proposition and the venture’s commitment to propelling African fintechs to new heights.

Founded a year ago by Barbara Woollams and Miranda Perumal, Scale is an issuer orchestration platform, providing infrastructure to simplify the card issuance process for businesses across the continent.

In a region where payment card penetration remains low, particularly in underserved segments, the startup’s innovative approach to card management offers a much-needed solution.

Overtime, the startup has strategically secured partnerships with investors, banking institutions, networks, and payment technology providers, positioning it as a modern card issuing orchestration and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) enabler.

Also Read: Chpter, Kenyan e-commerce Startup Raises $1.2 Million in Pre-seed Round

Funding To Accelerate Scale’s Expansion Across Africa

The $700,000 in pre-seed funding will allow Scale to accelerate its market entry into three African nations, where the company aims to enable fintechs and other businesses to offer payment solutions that are otherwise challenging to deploy.

With such expansion comes challenges, especially with the fear of chargeback fraud in Africa. In 2022, African fintechs like Eversend and Busha briefly scaled back their card operations and had to change providers after Union54, a Zambian fintech that provided a virtual card-issuing API, discontinued its card services as attempted chargeback fraud cases on its platform rose by 600%.

However, according to Techcabal, Scale says its product can reduce the costs of prevailing card-issuing models.

CEO Perumal said in a statement, “With the backing of our esteemed investors and partners, we are well-positioned to expedite our ecosystem engagement, build trust with African businesses and continue to strongly focus on solving major pain points when enabling card rails by delivering unrivalled, world-class service.”

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