Billbox has closed a $1.6 million pre-seed fundraising round. Billbox is an integrated billing-to-payment platform that aims to ensure timely payments for businesses throughout Africa.
Prominent investors such as Norrsken Accelerator, Kaleo Ventures, Founders Factory Africa – FFA (now 54 Collective), P2Vest, and Afrinovation Ventures participated in the investment round.
The business said in a statement that this substantial financial support will allow Billboxx to address the crucial cash flow issues that SMEs in Africa face.
The motivation behind their investment
Alex Bakir, General Partner at Norrsken Accelerator, commented on the funding, saying the organisation was thrilled to invest in Billboxx because it addresses a crucial issue for SME growth in Africa: cash flow management.
“The team has experienced first-hand the challenges associated with invoices and payments and is committed to building solutions that simply work for small businesses across the continent. We’re proud to support Justus, AZ, and the team, and we see huge potential in the financial solutions Billboxx is developing,” Bakir stated.
The CEO of 54 Collective (previously Founders Factory Africa), a co-investor in the Pre-seed, Bongani Sithole, also commented, saying the organization is excited about the creative work the Billboxx team is creating.
“These three founders, who have all had successful exits, are using their business acumen and leadership skills to address a significant issue facing SMEs in Africa.”
“We invested in the company because of the sizeable market opportunity, the solid tech product the team has developed, and the impressive early traction gained from strong early partnerships with notable large corporates and startups. We’re thrilled to support Justus and Abdulazeez as they continue to climb Billboxx,” he stated.
Founders
Justus Obaoye and Abdulazeez Ogunjobi, co-founders of Billboxx, have a wealth of business experience.
- Previously, they co-founded two startups: Fixit45, a Cars45 spin-off, and Charistouch (Carido), which Cars45 successfully purchased.
- Their leadership background in scale-ups and major corporations like Schlumberger, Bolt, and OLX enhances their entrepreneurial skills and strategic understanding.
- Co-founder Obaoye reaffirmed their commitment to empowering African SMEs, pointing out that cash flow issues are the main reason businesses fail in Africa and that late invoice payments are a significant factor in this problem.
What To Note
Many SMEs are stifled by delayed payments, frequently caused by manual invoicing and deferred payments.
- The integrated billing-to-payment platform from Billboxx minimizes the impact of deferred payments, improves billing procedures, and eliminates inefficiencies from manual invoicing.
- Billboxx enables businesses to achieve steady cash flow and concentrate on expansion by offering automated billing and invoicing, safe payment processing, and customized cash flow financing.
- Billboxx, founded in early 2023, said that its MVP, released in May 2023, had enabled the payment of over four million dollars in invoices.
