South African fintech startup LittleFish, which enables banks to better serve SMEs, has raised an undisclosed amount from TLcom Capital and Flourish Ventures to help it scale.
Co-founded in 2021 by Brandon Roberts and Miod Davith Kahwa, Little fish aims to address the financial services gap for SMEs in Africa through a comprehensive digital platform that enables banks to better serve SMEs.
By partnering with financial institutions, the startup offers a range of services, streamlining financial operations, offering digital payment processing and facilitating access to credit. The partnership model allows banks to retain their SME customers while offering a more agile and customer-centric solution.
The startup is now planning to expand its operations after securing an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by TLcom Capital, which is making its first foray into South Africa, and also featuring Flourish Ventures.
TLcom Capital, which in April announced the final closing of its US$154 million Tide Africa II seed fundsaid in a blog post that he was impressed by three things about LittleFish after first meeting the team in late 2022.
“First and foremost, Brandon’s courage and ambition to leave a job in the enterprise software industry to start a high-growth technology company early in his career. Second, the team has a deep understanding of the fintech sector. Their vision to empower banks to counter the rise of fintechs by acquiring more efficiently and better serving small and mid-sized businesses was clear from day one,” the company said.
“Finally, Littlefish’s partnership with Visa is important because it gives the company a major competitive advantage by allowing it to launch with strong ties to Visa’s partner banks. Visa clearly also saw the enormous value in the company’s mission and product.