Leatherback CEO Ibrahim Toheeb
UK cross-border payments startup Leatherback has raised $10 million in a pre-seed funding round led by ZedCrest Capital. Zedcrest Capital is a pan-African venture investment firm. Prior to this funding round, the company was bootstrapped by its founder. B
According to Investopedia, bootstrapping describes a situation in which an entrepreneur starts a company with little capital, relying on money other than outside investments. An individual is said to be bootstrapping when they attempt to found and build a company from personal finances or the operating revenues of the new company.
The startup is looking to pique the interest of international audiences. Like it or not, the cross-border payments space is a huge deal, and platforms such as Revolut and Wise have done so well in capturing the interest of the international audience.
Leatherback was founded in 2019 by CEO Ibrahim Toyeeb and offers a multiple currency solution that makes seamless cross-border payments possible. Per the CEO the newly-acquired funding will be deployed to raise Leatherback’s profile in the Fintech arena as well as extend its capacity in the many countries it’s licensed in and where it is about to be approved. These include South Africa, Egypt, Uganda, India, and the UAE.”
UK-based Leatherback offers multi-currency accounts with the option to exchange currency across various countries around the world, including Nigeria, Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Angola, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, the UAE, Denmark, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire
Speaking on Leatherback and its investment, Zedcrest Capital’s Group Managing Director, Adedayo Amzat, said that “As principal investors, we love opportunities where we can bring our expertise to bear. It has been rewarding to provide operational and strategic support to Leatherback in its quest to build the perfect compliance, technology, and finance infrastructure that will allow it to be the operating system of choice for the global mobility of businesses and individuals.”
