5 Tech Companies Making Life Easy with Digital Payments

Do you remember how stressful sending money used to be? If you don't, take a short ride with us down memory lane 🚌

Here's what sending money in 2010 looked like

• Visit a bank, usually located kilometers away in the business areas of a city
• Fill out a deposit slip
• Wait in the queue for hours
• Get to the counter to discover an error in the account number you wrote or a misspelled name
• Refill another deposit slip and submit it to the cashier

To cap it all, the person you're sending the money to would sometimes wait for hours before the money gets to their account. It was no fun back then, but that was the only available means to send money.

Now the world has changed 🌍

You no longer have to travel far distances or wait for banks to open their doors in the morning before you can pay anyone. You can go online and make transfers at any time of the day or night, and it’s much easier than before. You can even set up scheduled transfers and pay bills straight from your phone.

And all of these are possible because of digital technologies that companies developed to bring financial services to your fingertips.

What a great time to be alive!

Here are five of the companies leading the financial revolution:

5. Interswitch

* Mitchell Elegbe, Interswitch Founder*

Interswitch is an electronic payment and digital commerce service provider. Their first service was transaction processing for banks. They then expanded to producing ATM cards (Verve) that work all over Africa.

Now, they focus on digital payments and provide tools to help you manage your business.

Interswitch is the oldest financial technology company in Nigeria. It was founded by Mitchell Elegbe in 2002.

What you'll love:

• You can pay for flights, utility bills, and government levies with their flagship network, Quickteller.
• Quickteller Business has a storefront to help you sell your products
• They also provide custom payment support for businesses in the health, energy, and transport sector

4. Paystack

* Paystack Co-founders, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi*

Paystack provides digital payment and mobile money transfer solutions for entrepreneurs and SMEs. It was founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi.

Paystack is the first Nigerian startup to graduate from the popular startup house, Y Combinator. The acquisition by Stripe in October 2020 helped to expand their operations to other parts of Africa.

What you'll love:

• They provide security features that help you detect and prevent fraudulent transactions
• It's free to set up Paystack for your business, but you'll pay a small fee every time you receive money
• You can create simple shareable links to receive payments even if you don't have a website

3. Flutterwave

* Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave Founder and CEO*

Flutterwave provides systems for payments between businesses. It was founded by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji in 2016. However, Iyinoluwa left his role as CEO in 2018.

Flutterwave operates in more than 12 African countries, UK, USA, and other parts of Europe.

What you'll love:

• You can receive payments on your website or by sending a unique link to your customers
• You can create a digital store and receive payments straight to your account
• Barter by Flutterwave helps you create virtual credit cards that you can use to shop on international websites

2. Patricia

* Hanu Fejiro, Founder of Patricia*

Patricia is a company that makes it easy to use cryptocurrencies for everyday transactions. It was founded by Hanu Fejiro Agbodje in August 2017.

It started as a gift card marketplace, then expanded into a cryptocurrency exchange. Patricia currently operates from Estonia after relocating there in July 2021.

What you'll love:

• A peer-to-peer market where you can buy and exchange cryptocurrencies
• They have a learning portal where you can learn about cryptocurrencies and how to invest
• You can receive international payments in cryptocurrencies and exchange them for naira.

1. Sparkle

* Uzoma Dozie, Founder/CEO of Sparkle*

Sparkle is a digital bank that helps you to simplify your financial lifestyle. It was founded by Uzoma Dozie in 2019.

Sparkle gives you the freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want to do it. Whether you want to chop life, save, receive money or manage your business finances, everything is possible in the Sparkle ecosystem.

What you'll love:

• You can create a personal or business account in minutes without the tedious documentation a traditional bank requires.
• You can pay bills and split payments with friends and family from the Sparkle app
• Sparkle Stash to help you Save as you like, frequently or with interest
• You can get physical/virtual cards from the app (and also block them in case of theft or you misplace them)
• You can register your new business, create a Tax Identification Number (TIN) and and manage every aspect of your business from the app too

Conclusion

The financial industry is changing, and it's changing fast.

This is not an exhaustive list of the technology companies leading the financial revolution. We picked these five because they’ve made it easier to manage your money and make transactions in ways that were once impossible.

We're definitely thankful for their innovations.

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What do you want to do today?

You decide! Sparkle is a digital bank that gives you freedom, convenience, and simplicity in your everyday life.

Open a personal or business account with Sparkle and see for yourself how digitally simple life can be.

Sparkle…digitally simple