ThankUCash, a multi-merchant rewards platform has raised $5.3m in its seed funding round, as it plans to expand its foothold in Nigeria.
The round was co-led by 500 Global and Unicorn Growth Capital. The round also saw participation from US-based accelerator Expert Dojo, Predictive VC, SaaS Growth Ventures, Betatron Venture Group, and Accelerex Holdings. Individual investors like Andrew Dell, former CEO of HSBC and Craig Fenton of Google UK also took part.
ThankUCash describes itself as a technology company powering rewards and loyalty for African banks and businesses.
The company helps merchants grow revenue by connecting them to customers within and outside of their locations, while retaining acquired customers using a data analytics-powered reward system in which customers earn cash rewards for every transaction made both offline and online.
The company plans to use the investment to expand within its home market Nigeria — where it operates in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja — and outside to Ghana and Kenya. It also wants to improve its product offerings and add more staff.
Offering cash back and loyalty points to customer is difficult in a market such as Nigeria, where many businesses operate offline, but, an online platform such as ThankUCash offers an opportunity to boost customer retention and increase revenue.
Simeon Ononobi, CEO of ThankUCash, said, “We are creating solutions that help SMEs succeed while increasing consumer buying power and opportunities. We want to build an infrastructure for rewards, loyalty, deals, buy now, pay later, cashback,
“Cashback was our low hanging fruit and an entry point. We’re still going to go into deals, couponing, gift cards, buy now, pay later, anything that will help the business grow, but at the same time, allowing the consumer increase in opportunities of buying.”
