Waza emerges from Stealth with $8 million seed funding to revolutionize cross-border payments for African businesses

Waza, a B2B payments platform supported by Y Combinator, has officially launched with $8 million in seed funding to streamline cross-border transactions for African businesses.

The funding round includes $3 million in equity from a group of investors, including Y Combinator, Byld Ventures, Norrsken Africa, Heirloom VC, Plug and Play Tech Center, and Olive Tree Capital. In addition, Timon Capital, based in Lagos and New York, contributed $5 million in venture debt financing, which Waza will use to pilot trade financing solutions for large enterprise clients.

Founded by fintech veterans Maxwell Obi and Emmanuel Igbodudu, Waza was created to address the significant challenges faced by businesses in emerging markets, particularly across Africa. These challenges include limited access to hard currencies such as USD, EUR, and GBP, complex regulatory frameworks, and high transaction fees that have historically made cross-border payments a difficult and expensive process for companies.

Waza’s platform simplifies these complexities by offering a user-friendly, secure, and affordable solution for B2B payments, even in regions where access to hard currencies is limited. Since its inception in January 2023, following participation in Y Combinator’s winter batch, Waza has seen rapid growth. The fintech processed $280,000 in total payment volume in its first month, scaling up to $70 million in monthly payment volume by May, equating to an annualized transaction volume of $700 million. The company’s revenue model, based on FX spreads and a take rate of 0.75% to 1%, has seen an average monthly growth of 20%.

Waza serves a diverse range of clients across six continents, including multinational organizations operating locally in Africa, importers and traders dealing with suppliers in countries like India, China, and the U.K., as well as fintechs and developers requiring API infrastructure for cross-border payment solutions.

The platform’s competitive edge lies in its strong global banking relationships, control over payment infrastructure, and ability to offer faster, more affordable settlement options compared to traditional banks and competitors like AZA Finance, Verto, and Conduit.

Co-founder and CEO Maxwell Obi brings significant experience to Waza, having co-founded Nigerian fintech Amplify, later acquired by Carbon, and worked with Sendwave, a subsidiary of Zepz. It was during his tenure at Sendwave, navigating partnerships and regulatory relationships across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, that Obi identified the need for a service to manage global supplier and vendor payments—an insight that led to the creation of Waza.

Co-founder and CTO Emmanuel Igbodudu also brings a strong technical background to the table, having served as a senior engineer at Revolut, where he led the Vaults team, and held positions at prominent Nigerian fintechs such as Moniepoint and Fairmoney. Together, Obi and Igbodudu are leveraging their expertise to expand Waza’s services into additional trade finance and cross-border payment solutions, with plans to diversify the company’s revenue streams.

Looking ahead, Waza is exploring the development of new products, including a banking solution for businesses similar to Brex or Mercury for Africa, as well as a stablecoin banking product designed for the digital economy. The recent seed investment will support these initiatives and facilitate Waza’s expansion into new markets beyond its current operations in Ghana and Nigeria.

Commenting on the investment, Chris Muscarella, Managing Director of Timon Capital, stated, “The Waza team has deep experience around cross-border flows, and they are going after one of the bigger opportunities in frontier markets.” With a vision to tap into the $7 trillion global market, Waza aims to provide essential liquidity and payment solutions for businesses in Africa and beyond.