This Black Woman Just Secured An Additional $2.1M For Her Cross-Border Commerce Startup

Lagos and San Francisco-based Klasha has received an additional $2.1 million to complete its $4.5 million seed round.

The startup, which provides multiple products for the cross-border commerce space in Africa, raised this new financing from a group of international investors co-led by American Express Ventures, the strategic investment group of American Express.

The round also included Global Ventures, the MENA-focused VC that has backed the likes of Tabby, Helium Health, and Paymob.

Jess Anuna first founded Klasha in 2018. At the time, the company’s focus was to make it easier for African consumers to purchase products directly from global fashion retailers.

Now it has several features and a new business model centered around helping Africans make payments and get the goods they want, regardless of their location.

KlashaCheckout allows merchants outside Africa to collect payments from six countries on the continent — Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and Kenya — and get paid in G20 currencies like American dollars, British pounds, or euros.

The checkout solution can be integrated into any e-commerce platform, the company told TechCrunch.

It also has plugins for big-name e-commerce sites WooCommerce, OpenCart, and BigCommerce and is set to sign an official partnership with BigCommerce, extending its reach to more merchants globally.