Launched in 2008, AppZone delivers proprietary products for digital core banking and interbank transaction processing with clients across seven African countries including high-profile names like Access Bank, GT Bank and Zenith Bank.

To date, the company’s platforms have served 18 commercial banks and over 450 microfinance banks, amassing a yearly transaction value and yearly loan disbursement of $2bn and $300mn respectively.

Led by CardinalStone Capital Advisers with participation from V8 Capital, Lateral Investment Partners, Constant Capital, and Itanna Capital Ventures, the new round will bolster investment in Appzone’s core technologies and kick off a wave of new country expansions.

Appzone’s co-founder and CEO Obi Emetarom says traditional and challenger banks in Africa are limited to using foreign technology solutions tailored for Western markets - many of which are plagued with the huge stumbling blocks of prohibitive pricing, insufficient flexibility to innovate and a lack of local tech support.

“For the last 12 years, we’ve worked in stealth mode, building the really complex infrastructure to power the continent's growing digital financial services space and forging partnerships with the continent’s biggest financial institutions," he says. "We are not just trying to bring African fintech on-par with the rest of the world - we exist to make our financial sector the most innovative and technologically advanced on the globe through solutions built for Africa by Africans.”

Currently, Appzone’s clients spread across Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), Tanzania, Senegal and Guinea and to-date, the company has raised $15mn in equity funding.