Many banks do a fantastic job at helping customers hold money and also providing them with loans but when it comes to giving visibility to a business’ cash flow, not a lot of banks deem this a top priority.
For Duplo, an embedded payments product for B2B businesses in Africa, it is able to identify this and is working to close the gap.
Yele Oyekola, co-founder and CEO, Duplo while speaking during the Nairametrics Business Half Hour show, described Duplo as the simplest way for businesses to pay each other, emphasizing that it enables businesses to simplify how they collect money from their clients and also how they make payment. Beyond this, he said that the startup also automates the way these businesses track and reconcile their payment flows, saving them immense time and cost as well.
“You don’t have enough visibility into your cash flow and that’s what we are trying to do. We are trying to simplify the way you collect payment from your clients. We are trying to improve the way you get access to cash. We are giving you visibility and also trying to help you track payment flow better as well; the things bank and big fintechs can’t provide you,” Oyekola said.
“When you think of business payment, a lot of people are focused on either banking or providing loans for businesses, but for Duplo, we are trying to automate finance workflow from how you collect money to how you reconcile money or reconcile your account and how you make payment to your account.
“We strongly believe that it is not enough for you to be banked or to get a loan, it is very important you get visibility. We help you get detailed insight into where your money goes in business. We are heavily focused on account payable and account receivable automation and also account reconciliation, which is a different business,” he added.
Although less than a year old, the startup has already been through two rounds of funding. The first round saw the startup raise a $1.3 million seed grant from international investors and local companies. Duplo also joined the Y combinatory winter 2022 batch which gave it good standing with investors globally.
Speaking on how the startup is ensuring safe ground for customers, Oyekola explained that Duplo ensures all financial transactions are encrypted and stored according to global standards. He said, “Although we aren’t a bank, all payment received is actually safe with us. The payment goes directly to our banking partners and all these banks are insured by the NDIC.
“In addition to this, we are trying so hard to ensure that data and financial information are incredibly secured by adhering to this very steep and high standard given to us by these different bodies across the world.”
He added that the startup is helping businesses understand the need to go digital rather than focus on cash which is prone to fraud, theft and cannot be easily tracked.
“Slowly but surely, we were seeing more businesses go digital. Some of our distributors have gone to about 80% of cash reliance from 95% in a few months. But the main thing is trying to educate the customer and making them understand the importance of going cashless because we see that businesses that rely heavily on cash lose about 3% revenue month-on-month and that is a massive depletion to your cash flow,” he said.
While all startups are faced with different challenges, for Duplo, the concern is how to raise money, how to sell the story, employ the right people, find the right partners, amongst others. But the most pressing has been trying to solve problems in a space where cash is king.
In his view on the ease of doing business in Nigeria, Oyekola said the central bank is doing all it can to ensure it is keeping pace with innovation in the fintech space. “Though there have been innovations that have been restricted for good reasons, we are dealing with people’s money, it is important that we follow regulations as strict as they might be.
“I think the only thing that is required of them is just to encourage banks to engage with fintechs and get more with early-stage startups. If you aren’t a funded business in Nigeria, it will be difficult to scale through. With different regulations, you have to get their payment licences and these are very expensive,“ he said.
