Zazu Raises $1M Pre-Seed to Build Africa’s First Pan-African Digital Business Banking OS
Zazu, the first pan-African digital banking platform built exclusively for entrepreneurs and SMEs, has successfully raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate its rollout in South Africa and Morocco, with plans for continent-wide expansion in 2026.
The funding round was led by Plug and Play Ventures, with participation from a distinguished group of angel investors and fintech founders, including Zachariah George (Launch Africa Ventures), Axel Peyriere (Co-founder, AUTO24.africa), Akshay Patel (Founder, Paymentology), Ismael Belkhayat (Founder, Chari), and Sophie Guibaud (Founder, Fiat Republic), alongside founding members of European fintech unicorns such as Qonto and Solarisbank—forming one of the most experienced cap tables in the African fintech ecosystem.
Founded by Germain Bahri and Rinse Jacobs, former Solarisbank executives, Zazu is building a Mercury-style digital banking experience tailored for African SMEs. The platform is currently in beta with 50 SMEs, while more than 1,000 businesses are on the waitlist, targeting Africa’s 50 million underserved SMEs by combining European fintech expertise with deep local market understanding.
Zazu is already operational in South Africa and Morocco, where it has integrated with Paystack, Shopstar, and Ozow, and secured 20+ ecosystem partnerships. The company has also been selected for the Visa Accelerator Program, named a finalist for KPMG Enterprise Innovator of the Year 2025, and listed among PwC’s Fintechs to Watch.
South Africa and Morocco were selected as launch markets due to their fast-growing SME sectors, strong fintech infrastructure, and strategic positioning as gateways to Southern and North Africa. Together, these markets represent over 5 million SMEs and tens of billions of dollars in annual business payments.
Following its early traction, Zazu plans to open its Seed funding round in early 2026, inviting a limited number of strategic investors to support its pan-African expansion and the launch of new entrepreneur-focused financial products.
