Estonia-based cross-border payment startup PayQin has raised €300,000 in a seed funding round, pushing the startup’s total funding to US$1 million.

Founded in 2017, PayQin operates a comprehensive e-wallet service in West Africa for the unbanked and underbanked population.

Its chief aim is to drive financial inclusion in Africa, where the mobile phone penetration is twice the rate of banking access.

PayQin’s app allows customers to store mobile money, use cross-border debit cards, make payments, and manage crypto transactions.

The startup aims to reach 1 million daily transactions in a year, the press release stated.

PayQin is an alumnus of the Estonia-founded Startup Wise Guys accelerator’s first fintech batch powered by Swedbank, the Nordics’ largest bank.

The company is also backed by several angel investors and Venture Capital (VC) firms from the Baltic countries, including United Angels VC, Startup Wise Guys.

The startup also counts VC investors from the US and Africa, including Planet42 Co-founder Eerik Oja and PlanGrid Founder Jānis Krūms, among its investors. 

PayQin currently operates in the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Senegal, and Mali, which together represent over 22% of the West African population.

The startup aims to develop a single payment platform for West African countries that have a population of 400 million.

PayQin plans to open the platform to remittances from Europe to facilitate a large inflow of transactions that totaled US$48 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa alone in 2019.

Fabrice Amalaman, PayQin Co-founder and CEO, noted,

“We are building a safe and secure environment for online transactions, giving the unbanked access to products and online services that are not available locally.”

Featured image credit: PayQin