Billboxx, a Nigerian fintech offering innovative cash flow and invoicing solutions, has successfully raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed funding round. The capital, a blend of debt and equity, was secured from notable investors including Norrsken Accelerator, Kaleo Ventures, 54 Collective, P2Vest, and Afrinovation Ventures.
Founded in 2023 by Justus Obaoye and Abdulazeez Ogunjobi, Billboxx is addressing a critical pain point for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): cash flow challenges caused by lengthy payment cycles. With Billboxx’s invoice financing, SMEs can receive upfront payments while awaiting approval from their enterprise partners. For this service, the platform charges up to 5% in financing fees and 1.5% for transactions processed on its platform.
The startup reportedly processes ₦1 billion monthly, with zero defaults. “We realised that every business we have interacted with had a lot of billing inefficiencies and cash flow problems. Some of them still do invoices manually or with Excel sheets,” said Obaoye.
Bridging Gaps for SMEs
Targeting small and medium businesses, Billboxx also offers a suite of business banking services designed to streamline financial management. Its unique distribution strategy leverages partnerships with large enterprises to onboard SMEs into its ecosystem. Notable clients include Monument Distillers and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
Unlike competitors that primarily serve mid-market or larger enterprises, Billboxx focuses on crafting tailored solutions for SMEs. “We plan to become the financial operating system for SMEs in Africa,” Obaoye added.
Expansion Plans
The fintech aims to scale its operations, enhance its product offerings, and recruit additional talent with the newly acquired funding. Looking ahead, Billboxx is set to roll out a feature enabling SMEs to explore new market opportunities within corporate ecosystems, although details about the feature remain under wraps.
