B2B payment platform Duplo has raised $4.3M in a SEED funding saw participation from Liquid2 Ventures, Soma Capital, Tribe Capital, Commerce Ventures, Basecamp Fund, Nama Ventures, Y Combinator, and returning investor Oui Capital. Launched in 2021 by Yele Oyekola and Tunde Akinnuwa, Duplo is aimed at helping FMCG distributors and finance teams of midsize and enterprise businesses to digitize and simplify the way money moves between them and their business partners.
FMCG distributors can onboard retailers in their network on the Duplo platform, making it easier for them to collect payments digitally and access real-time insights into business performance. They can also automate payments to vendors, manufacturers, and suppliers, with instant payments enabling them to transact in larger quantities. According to Yele Oyekola, CEO and co-founder of Duplo, “we have seen a lot of innovation in consumer payments in Africa in recent years but business-to-business payments have largely stayed the same. We strongly believe that there is a great opportunity to catalyze growth and maximize business opportunities across the continent by removing the bottlenecks that hinder the seamless flow of money between businesses and we are excited to have raised funding from this exciting group of investors to deliver this much-needed transformation”.
Duplo will be utilizing the funding to launch new products and expand into new business verticals in Nigeria. “The Duplo team has built an incredible suite of products that improve how businesses make and receive payments from each other, and the growth that the company has experienced since our initial pre-seed investment in 2021 has been nothing short of impressive. It is for this reason that we are excited to back Duplo once more,” concluded Peter Oriaifo, Principal at Oui Capital.