Nigerian Digital Platform for Bookkeeping and Commerce Pastel Raises $5.5M in a Seed Round

Nigerian digital business and bookkeeping platform Bastille has announced the completion of an initial $5.5 million round led by pan-African venture capital firm TLcom Capital.

Other venture capital firms such as Global Founders Capital (GFC), Golden Palm Investments, DFS Labs, Ulu Ventures, Plug and Play, and Soma Cap also participated in the initial round.

Last year, Bastille was able to raise $620,000 in seed funding from some of its existing investors, as the startup sought to penetrate more than 40 million small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Nigeria and a larger African population.

Founded by two Nigerian and one Afghan national (graduate students Abuzar Ruwich, Olamide Oladiji, and Izuna Okonkwo at Stanford), Pastel started as Sabi Cash with a mission to build solutions for SMEs in emerging markets, particularly from their own countries. Origin: Afghanistan (Rush) and Nigeria (Olaji and Okonkwo).

Sabi, the startup’s flagship product, is a digital bookkeeping application that enables small businesses to monitor and manage their transactions and customers, gain insight into their cash flow, issue receipts, and effectively manage what they owe them.

According to a report by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), Nigeria’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMBs) are worth over $200 billion and comprise more than 40 million businesses of all sizes. This data is driving Pastel to new heights in sourcing inventory from manufacturers while providing solutions for tracking cash flow, payments, and access to funds.

According to Pastel co-founder Izunna Okonkwo, as of December 2021, the company’s CRM and bookkeeping service has more than 100,000 merchant registrations, and the free app currently has over 45,000 active merchant users.

Pastel bookkeeping solutions are designed to help small businesses digitally simplify operations, save money, and stay afloat in the process.

Nigerian Digital Platform for Bookkeeping

The startup recently added more features for merchants so that they can get more value in the chain.

Okonkwo said this when Pastel decided to create three separate platforms instead of merging them all into one common application:

“Our thought process was to capture attention quickly with a free and simple solution to a merchant’s pain point. The next step was to capture value. So we added value to the Sabi app that our customers love. Now we are building more.”

“The way we think about it is that, as opposed to creating super apps that many other fintech companies have been or sought after, we take a platform-based approach, which means that any Bastille user can use any of our apps through the same login and they can Access to all other solutions we offer.

It is believed that with this initial round, the company will be able to enhance its offering as it seeks to work steadily around SMEs.

Last year, Bastille was able to raise $620,000 in seed funding from some of its existing investors, as the startup sought to penetrate more than 40 million small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Nigerian and a larger African population.

Founded by two Nigerian and one Afghan national (graduate students Abuzar Ruwich, Olamide Oladiji, and Izuna Okonkwo at Stanford), Pastel started as Sabi Cash with a mission to build solutions for SMEs in emerging markets, particularly from their own countries. Origin: Afghanistan (Rush) and Nigerian.

Pastel bookkeeping solutions are designed to help small businesses digitally simplify operations, save money, and stay afloat in the process.

The startup recently added more features for merchants so that they can get more value in the chain.

Okonkwo said this when Pastel decided to create three separate platforms instead of merging them all into one common application:

“Our thought process was to capture attention quickly with a free and simple solution to a merchant’s pain point. The next step was to capture value. So we added value to the Sabi app that our customers love. Now we are building more.”

“The way we think about it is that, as opposed to creating super apps that many other fintech companies have been or sought after, we take a platform-based approach, which means that any Bastille user can use any of our apps through the same login and they can Access to all other solutions we offer.

It is believed that with this initial round, the company will be able to enhance its offering as it seeks to work steadily around SMEs.

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