Revio, a South African fintech startup, is addressing the fragmented payment landscape in Africa by providing payment orchestration services. The company has raised $5.2 million in seed funding to tackle payment failures that cost digital businesses billions in recurring revenue each year. Revio’s APIs allow companies to connect to more than 70 payment methods and service providers, streamlining the order-to-cash lifecycle and increasing payment success rates. The participation of investors such as QED and Partech in the seed round demonstrates the relevance of Revio’s product and is seen as a positive signal for the African startup ecosystem.
Revio has developed an end-to-end payment value chain that merchants can use to collect revenue from customers. The platform offers transaction routing, automated failover and retries, and real-time customer engagement workflows. It has also introduced a revenue recovery use case to address payment failures due to insufficient funds or abandoned authorizations. By engaging consumers in the checkout process and providing more convenient payment methods, Revio aims to bridge the gap between merchants’ needs and consumer realities on the ground.
With coverage in over 25 African markets, Revio is expanding its scope to serve businesses that transact across different countries. The startup plans to target global retailers serving the African market in its next development phase. The additional funding will be used to enhance technological capabilities, including cross-border reconciliation settlement, and expand the team. Revio’s mission is to unlock increased e-commerce and digital payment activity in Africa and help merchants reach new customer segments.