Zazu, a pan-African digital financial operating system tailored exclusively for entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), has successfully closed a $1 million pre-seed funding round. The capital was secured from a mix of leading African and European investors, including Plug and Play Ventures, and several influential angel investors and founders from firms like Launch Africa Ventures and Solarisbank. This investment will accelerate Zazu’s rollout in its initial markets, South Africa and Morocco, positioning the company for a broader pan-African expansion scheduled for 2026.
Financial OS for the ‘Missing Middle’
Founded by former Solarisbank executives, Zazu is building a “Mercury-style” banking experience designed to serve Africa’s estimated 50 million underserved SMEs—a group often referred to as the continent’s “missing middle” due to their lack of access to tailored financial services. The platform functions as a central hub, combining core banking essentials (accounts, cards, and payments) with API-driven integrations for crucial business tools such as payroll, e-commerce, and bookkeeping. This rebundled architecture aims to solve the problem of fragmented financial workflows that force African entrepreneurs to juggle multiple standalone applications.
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Traction and Markets: Zazu is already live in beta with 50 SMEs and boasts a waitlist exceeding 1,000 businesses. South Africa and Morocco were chosen as initial launch markets due to their large, fast-growing SME sectors and their strategic positioning as gateways to Southern and North Africa, respectively.
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Partnerships: Zazu operates on a partnership-first model, collaborating with regulated commercial banks and integrating with key ecosystem players such as Paystack and Ozow to provide a cohesive financial management hub.
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Next Steps: Following this pre-seed round, Zazu plans to open its Seed funding round in early 2026 to secure the necessary capital for its continental expansion and the introduction of new financial products tailored to African business owners.
