The Architects Of The Next Layer
This isn’t just another raise, it’s a shift in how payments flow across the continent.
By bridging offline markets with online rails, Stitch is building where legacy banks didn’t.
Nigeria stands to gain if it integrates fast and stays merchant-focused.
Because whoever controls the transaction layer controls the next economy.
South African-born Stitch raises $55 million in Series B, expanding its payments API infrastructure across Africa, even Nigeria.
Stitch’s funding round is led by QED Investors, Glynn Capital, Flourish Ventures, and Norrsken22, boosting its total capital raised to $107 million as of April 2025 .
This isn’t just capital, it’s a reboot. Stitch, re-emerging from its WigWag rebrand into Stitch Express, now serves both e-commerce and in‑person businesses across Nigeria and South Africa. Its core product? Embedded payments solutions on platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and Webflow, but now with physical payment options too, via its acquisition of ExiPay .
By capturing $55M now, Stitch gains a region‑wide reach and infrastructure prep. Nigeria’s informal economy is massive and notoriously cash‑heavy. Stitch is banking on the shift to digital by equipping small businesses, market stalls, and online shops with seamless pay‑with‑bank‑account checkout and cardless in‑person terminals.
Here’s the real driver: they saw a gap. Visa, PayPal Ventures, Ribbit and others backed the round, not just for Africa’s digital promise, but for Stitch’s ability to bridge offline and online commerce. This funding round launches them squarely into markets where fintech use has doubled, but hardware solutions lag.
Operational execution is already underway. Nigeria is now one of Stitch’s key markets: they’ve rolled out Stitch Express, with plug‑ins deepened in Lagos and Abuja. Small merchants are now pairing API checkout with POS terminals. That combo is structurally different from earlier fintech models, it solves both ends of the transaction.
Investors are watching the metrics. Retention rates exceed 80% post-integration. Transaction volumes are rising in double‑digit percentages month‑on‑month. But the metric that matters most? Merchant penetration: converting street‑hustle economies into digital businesses. That’s where Stitch gets scale and stickiness.
The platform is growing. The stack deepens. And now they’ve got fresh fuel to scale even faster.
Africa Hits $1.35B for H1 2025 ; A Comeback Born of Cash and Debt
African startup funding rockets to $1.35 billion in first half 2025, a 78% jump from the same period in 2024.
Every month this year pushed above the $250M mark with $365M raised in June alone, the strongest monthly run in nearly a year .
First key insight: Equity still dominates, accounting for $950M or 79% year‑on‑year growth, but the noticeable change is debt financing, now at $400M for H1 2025. That’s a 55% increase from H1 2024 and nearly equals H2 2024 totals.
In Nigeria, the picture is complex. Despite being Africa’s historical capital hub, Nigerian startups captured just ~4.35% of total June funding, raising barely over $15M—lower than their usual share. That’s a sharp divergence from weeks past when Lagos deals represented the majority of Africa’s tech growth.
But across the continent, capital is coming through different channels. Senegal, Kenya, and Egypt all raised large rounds: Wave in Senegal, agritech in Kenya, and Nawy in Egypt ($75M) moves that shifted the balance.
This is not a rebound. It’s a recalibration. Investors are shifting from chasing‑the‑next‑unicorn to solving real problems, logistics, clean energy, SME digitisation, health tech. And importantly, they’re financing via debt tools, asset‑backed deals, and more risk‑sparse structures.
So what does this mean for Nigeria’s ecosystem, which just crossed $100M privately raised in Q1 2025? It signals pressure. Fintech still leads. But sectors like agritech and clean energy grew more in other markets. Nigerian founders are increasingly using debt to manage working capital. Agriculture firm Agriarche raised $500K via debt funding; SunFi raised $1M in March for solar financing and logistics support.
Nigeria used to be the continent’s go-to startup capital. Now the country finds itself trailing as other markets fill gaps and scale with structured finance. The message to founders: diversify your funding path. Expect tighter equity rounds. Consider debt or grant options sooner.
Africa is funding again, but the form, location, and strategy are evolving. Nigeria needs to respond or risk being left as an afterthought in the new capital cascade.
Itana Raises $2M Pre‑Seed to Build Africa’s First Digital Free Zone
Itana, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji’s “digital city” project (formerly Talent City), secures $2 million pre‑seed to launch Africa’s first digital free zone. Backers include LocalGlobe, Pronomos Capital, Amplo, and Future Africa.
This isn’t just a tech office park. It’s a digital residency framework, a virtual jurisdiction with its own operational laws, enabled by a 72,000 sqm plot inside Nigeria’s Alaro City LEZ. The goal: let companies operate in Nigeria without being physically inside it.
Itana is building a jurisdiction layer for remote work, anchored in infrastructure but fronted by digital residency. The $2M pre-seed is early but meaningful. It fuels legal engineering, product development, and talent acquisition for beta launch in early 2026.
Nigeria and Africa face brain drain. Talent leaves because of infrastructure deficits, transparency shortfalls, and opportunity inconsistency. Itana is betting on reversal. Offer the paperwork, digital rights, and economic benefits, and executives, founders, and remote workers may choose to live and pay taxes or at least anchor services in Lagos.
Investors see this as infrastructure‑plus‑tech. LocalGlobe and Future Africa are effectively betting on a new class of jurisdictional layer: Africa’s answer to Delaware, but virtual.
Of course, the policy question is massive. Does Nigeria’s legal framework allow digital residency? NEPZA and the Startup Act hint at flexibility but adjusting policy is still a negotiation. Aboyeji’s next act may include quietly advocating for regulatory change.
The optics are also political: a foreign founder building a jurisdiction digital but tethered to Nigerian soil. If Itana succeeds, it becomes not just a project, it becomes a model for digital‑first economic zones across Africa.
This is bold, abstract, futuristic and absolutely a Nigerian story. Startups aren’t just apps anymore. They’re infrastructure platforms. Investors are following.
