LemFi押注一个应用服务非洲侨民；完成3300万美元A轮融资，年交易量达20亿美元

做的是什么生意

Fintech app for migrants: multi-currency accounts plus low-cost cross-border remittances to African and other Global South countries.

启动资金：$33M Series A led by Left Lane Capital (2023); YC-backed earlier; acquired UK's Rightcard for $2.5M (2021)

起因

Founded in 2020 by Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran, both veterans of Nigerian fintech OPay, as Lemonade Finance (Y Combinator Summer '21 cohort). It launched in Canada serving Nigerian migrants, expanded to other African diaspora communities there, and entered the UK in 2021 through the $2.5 million acquisition of Rightcard.

经过

By the end of 2023, users in Canada, the UK and the US could send money to 10 African destinations including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Senegal. LemFi raised a $33 million Series A led by Left Lane Capital in August 2023 to expand to the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Regulators in Ghana shut it down in November 2023 over activities described as illegal, and it later resumed operations there. The company recorded more than $2 billion in annual transaction volume in 2023 and claimed over a million customers.

结果

Still scaling: 250+ employees across 10+ countries, 20+ sending corridors by April 2024, expanding into Asian diaspora markets (India, China, Pakistan) and more European receive corridors; the founder says it is profitable.

可借鉴之处

不要正面进攻成熟的通道：LemFi为已有竞争者忽视的路线——在加拿大的尼日利亚人——构建了一个产品，然后凭借牌照而非补贴，一条条通道复制。