Let’s take a moment to celebrate David Peterside ’17, our Computer Science alumnus and Co-founder of Okra, a fintech venture that has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from TLcom Capital – an Africa focused VC firm that rarely invests in early-stage companies or fintech!
As a sector, fintech has become Africa’s highest funded tech space, receiving the bulk of an estimated $2 billion in VC that went to African startups in 2019. Those ventures, and a number of the continent’s established banks, are in a race to build market share through financial inclusion.
Speaking on this great win for Okra, Co-Founder and COO, David Peterside said, “Data is the new oil — When we started Okra last year, our priority was to help African fintechs and banks build the best in class technology and solve problems for their customers. This investment marks the next chapter of this mission. For too long, simple financial tasks like budgeting, internal reconciliations and credit assessments have been additional stressors for businesses and we’re filling a long-standing gap in the market. Our aim is to make these processes as seamless and pain-free for our clients so they can focus on their core services.”
About Okra
Launched in January 2020 by Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside, Okra is an API creating a secure portal and process to exchange real-time financial information between customers, applications and banks. The company is Africa’s first API “super-connector” and is developing the infrastructure for Africa’s next stage of fintech innovation.