Starting in Zambia, Zazu wants to be the most helpful money management app
by Startacus Admin
The lowdown on Zazu, the fintech startup that's making money management easier for the people in Zambia...
Africa is, we think we can all agree, a large place. It is home to a growing population with an average age of 25, among whom smartphone use continues to grow year on year. The value of mobile money transactions in sub-Saharan Africa was $656 million in 2014 and could potentially more than double to $1.3 billion by the end of this year.
As more and more people come online and look for ways to manage finances, they will need to become financially savvy and have good, safe access to digital payments. We wrote recently about another startup helping with the former, Fineazy, and today we’ll look at another!
Headquartered in London and operating in Zambia, Zazu - not the bird - is bringing 3 things to the table with their platform: increased financial literacy, free money storage, and the ability to make seamless digital payments. They launched a chatbot in early 2019 that users in Zambia can utilise for free via SMS, similarly to Fineazy, to learn about how financial services work. So far, over 1.1 million people have used this service already.
Recently, Zazu launched a controlled pilot of their Zazu Wallet, which allows money storage, transfer, and payment online without the need for a bank account. These payments started life based on QR codes, but Zazu quickly learned from this pilot that more was needed, so they worked to get their own branded prepaid cards that can be used anywhere that VISA/Mastercard is accepted. These will become available in November.
A couple of weeks ago, Zazu announced they have raised $1.4 Million and in the next few weeks, they will be doing an equity crowdfunding to supplement their round. They will be using Seedrs as the platform, as they previously did in 2017.
We look forward to seeing how this investment further shapes the Zazu journey over the coming months and if their money app takes flight across the african continent...
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Published on: 6th October 2019
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