Cleva, a Nigerian fintech startup that started its journey just four months ago, recently managed to secure an impressive $1.5 million in funding during a pre-seed round. What’s even more noteworthy is that it’s being recognized as the first African startup from the Y-Combinator W24 batch to be featured in their directory.
Cleva founders, Tolu Alabi and Abel Phillip
Cleva, a startup in Nigeria that focuses on financial technology, is making waves by being possibly the first African company to join Y Combinator’s winter batch in 2024. This is a big deal because Y Combinator is a prestigious accelerator program. Recently, on a Monday, Cleva shared some exciting news—they successfully gathered $1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. What’s the goal? Cleva aims to make it easier for people in Africa, starting with Nigeria, to receive money from around the world by setting up USD accounts. This will make international payments more accessible for African users.
Tolu Alabi mentioned that Cleva aims to address a widespread issue, not limited to Nigeria or Africa. The challenge they’re tackling involves helping people around the world receive payments from international sources. It’s not just a problem in Nigeria; individuals in Latin America, Asia, and even Canada face difficulties receiving dollars for their work and services. While Cleva is initially focusing on Nigeria due to its familiarity and large market, the team believes their diverse backgrounds uniquely position them to solve this global problem on a larger scale.
The initial funding stage, known as the pre-seed round, was supported by 1984 Ventures, a venture firm in San Francisco. Other contributors included The Raba Partnership, Byld Ventures, and FirstCheck Africa. They all came together to provide financial support for the growth of the Nigerian fintech company, Cleva.
Cleva is jumping into the competition alongside other African startups such as Payday (which was recently acquired by Bitmama), Geegpay, and Grey Finance. These companies all offer similar banking solutions for freelancers and people across Africa. Cleva sets itself apart by making things super easy for users – you can open a USD account in just a few minutes. Plus, it’s made by experts who have more than 10 years of experience in the US banking system. They keep it affordable too, with deposit charges capped at $20. Most importantly, Cleva is all about its users – they’re determined to give the best USD banking experience possible.
Alabi shared in an interview that, “We strongly believe in exceeding our customers’ expectations to ensure they have an outstanding experience. This is the feedback we’ve received directly from our customers. They trust that when they send us an email or contact our customer support, they won’t have to wait for one week or two weeks to get a response.”
Right now, people using Cleva can easily take money through ACH (Automated Clearing House) or local wire transfers from any bank in the United States. Moreover, freelancers have the option to receive payments from different platforms like Payoneer, Upwork, Deel, Fiverr, Amazon, and many others.
In August 2023, Tolu Alabi and Philip Abel, who used to work at Stripe and AWS, started a Nigerian fintech called Cleva. They officially registered it as a Money Service Business (MSB) with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Since they began, Cleva says they’ve handled more than $1 million in payments every month. Their revenue has been growing by 100% each month since they started.
Aaron Michael, a partner at 1984 Ventures said, “The team is uniquely qualified to address this given their experience building banking products at Stripe and robust platforms at AWS. The impressive early growth is a testament to the team’s unique capacity to execute across Africa and the US.”
