Nigerian tech startup, a cowry card payment system known as Touch and Pay (TAP) had joined in the W22 Y Combinator batch. The entrance of the startup has brought the number of Nigerian tech startups to 5 in the Y Combinator.
The four Nigerian startups which were earlier listed that would be funded in this year’s accelerator programme include Moni, Topship, IdentityPass and Doja.
There are probabilities that more Nigerian tech startups would be selected for the accelerator programme as the tech ecospace in Nigeria is gaining attention from the international community.
Capitalising on the backing, TAP’s intentions for the Y Combinator accelerator programme are to digitize cash-based microtransactions and expand across African markets and create a truly cashless ecosystem by mopping up cash across several sectors with technology.
The company is also set out to build a unique mobile payment and services platform capturing offline and online transactions in a seamless way and to especially focus on the processing of micro-transactions.
Speaking on company’s inclusion to the W22 accelerator programme, co-founder and CEO of Touch and Pay, Oluwole Afolabi said, “Touch and Pay plans to digitise the entire informal market with contactless cards and perhaps it could be a way to achieve true financial inclusion.”
Furthermore, the company is set out to transform the payment landscape in Nigeria and in Africa by facilitating financial inclusion and ensuring 99.9% reliability in cashless transaction processes in all sectors of the Nigerian economy.
About Touch and Pay
Touch and Pay started operations in 2017 by Michael Oluwole and Olamide Afolabi with the aim of reducing the amount of physical cash in circulation by encouraging the use of electronics for payment for goods and services.
The company tried different sectors before deciding to focus on digitizing transactions in the transportation sector. They soon started to work with LAGBUS, a Lagos State transportation system popularly known as BRT.
The company has so far been able to get about 1.5 million Lagosians to adopt cashless rides and use its newly introduced cowry cards as a means of payment for BRT buses.
