Maplerad is the banking-as-a-service platform that lets you embed powerful financial features into your product.
The Lagos-based business offers users the ability to pay bills, generate virtual and physical cards, hold and make payments in numerous currencies.
Most established banks have been rather sluggish to update their services to keep up with the rate of change in the banking and technology industries, banking-as-a-service platforms have grown in popularity with businesses looking to integrate financial services into their products. As a result, platforms offering banking as a service perceive an opportunity to offer more individualized services and flexibility for less money.
In Nigeria, YC-backed Anchor, Bloc, OnePipe, and bigger fintechs like Flutterwave are some of Maplerad’s rivals.
The newest event is the $6 million seed funding raised by Maplerad, a Fintech defined by its founders Miracle Anywanwu and Obinna Chukwujioke as a global BaaS provider focusing on Africa. Sources claim that the newly emerged American company Maplerad raised the financing at a $30 million valuation.
Over the past 18 months, platforms offering banking as a service (BaaS) have exploded in popularity across the Fintech industry. These platforms enable organizations, from startups and Fintech to large enterprises and banks, to offer specialized financial services and experiences to their clients.
The founders of Maplerad introduced Wirepay as the company’s first product in 2020, beginning Maplerad’s corporate history. The app’s initial goal was to facilitate cross-border payments for users by providing fiat and cryptocurrency cross-border payment options. But over time, it evolved into what it calls an “all-in-one finance platform,” allowing users to pay bills, create virtual and physical cards, and receive, retain, and make payments in a variety of currencies.
A $125,000 payment from OnDeck was part of unannounced pre-seed funding round for Wirepay last year. Other investors in the round included Berrywood Capital, Greenhouse Capital, some executives from Stash, and Golden Palm Investments Corporation.
Even though we didn’t start the company infrastructure first, Anyanwu said, “we understood the final move would be infrastructural from day one when we established Wirepay for our customers.”
Source: enterprisebureau.org
