On September 24, 2024, as enterprise capital funding for African startups plummeted and nervousness across the decline grew, Abdulhamid Hassan, the founding father of outstanding open banking startup Mono, posted a easy tweet: “don’t surrender. don’t die.”
It wasn’t only a quip however a philosophy that’s guided the rise of the five-year-old YC-backed firm, whose Delaware-registered guardian firm is known as Relentless Lab, and which powers seamless monetary experiences for firms like Mastercard, Flutterwave, and Carbon. It’s the identical philosophy that carried him from a small Ijebu city in southwest Nigeria to Lagos’ tech hub, then hubs in Egypt, Latvia, the UAE, and France, earlier than returning him to Lagos, the place he’s been at work constructing Mono.
“It appears like we now have failed if I open a fintech app at this time and don’t see Mono,” says Hassan. “I need a world the place, if I open any fintech utility in Nigeria at this time, there’s one specific characteristic that Mono powers. If that doesn’t occur but, I received’t sleep.”
Extra just lately, Hassan’s sleepless ambition has led to Owo, a brand new product that lets anybody make a fee by sending a WhatsApp message. But to launch, Owo is seeing spectacular traction already: Hassan claims that the product is processing ₦1 billion naira month-to-month.
“In 5 years, Owo would be the largest approach Nigerians spend cash,” he says.
From Ijebu to the world
I spoke to Hassan from his hometown in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, in western Nigeria. He arrived on the decision three minutes early. As we exchanged pleasantries, I took one other take a look at his LinkedIn profile. Mono, his five-year startup, is the one work expertise listed there. “That’s as a result of Mono is my life’s work,” he says. It was straightforward to overlook that we weren’t conversing in individual.
Hassan’s tech journey started in his hometown with dad and mom who weren’t solely entrepreneurial but in addition specific about service high quality. His late father was a pioneer in Ijebu’s rental enterprise, organising tents and chairs for events with an obsessive consideration to element, Hassan recollects. “He’d make us wash the chairs, the tents. If there was a single spot, you’d begin over. No half measures.” His mom, a designer, who he says introduced trendy aptitude to Ijebu’s Nineteen Nineties vogue, was his first trainer on person expertise, instilling in him simply how a product’s design may evoke belief and need. “I acquired my sense of what a very good person expertise appears to be like like from her,” he says.
These classes formed Abdul’s early forays into tech. After secondary college, he moved to Lagos to check pc engineering on the Nigerian Institute of Know-how (NIT). The tech ecosystem was nonetheless a unfastened assortment of boards and dreamers across the time, “not thought of cool in Nigeria,” he recollects. Hassan discovered a house in Radar, TechCabal’s now-defunct standard discussion board for tech conversations, the place he grew to become a daily commentator. When Paystack launched in 2016, he was amongst those that first introduced the information on the discussion board, a transfer that may later show prophetic.
His first startup, Washify, launched in 2014. It was an bold try to be the “Uber for laundromats,” connecting customers to close by laundry providers. Washify didn’t pan out, nevertheless it launched Hassan to Shola Akinlade, Paystack’s co-founder. On the time, Akinlade was an engineer at Klein Devort, a software program growth and consulting firm. Hassan says that Akinlade “actually liked” the Washify app design and reached out to ask if he had time to collaborate on a undertaking. Their dialog was transient and didn’t lead to something tangible—Hassan was getting ready to maneuver to Egypt for varsity—nevertheless it planted a seed.
The transfer to Egypt was a bureaucratic necessity. To review pc science in Latvia, the place he’d received a spot, Abdul wanted a visa, and Nigeria lacked a Latvian embassy. So, he spent a yr in Cairo, doing freelance frontend work to make ends meet. “I used to be simply ready for the visa, doing nothing,” he says, laughing. Lastly, in Latvia, he discovered the tutorial tempo underwhelming. Already possessing founder expertise, he was instructing his classmates greater than he was studying. “It felt like a waste of cash,” he admits. His brother was footing the invoice, however Hassan, ever frugal, dropped out.
What adopted was a short nomadic stint. Within the UAE, he joined the Flat6Labs Program with Skylar Labs, an AI startup for buyer assist that he launched with Cossi Achille Arouko, now co-founder of the finance administration platform Bujeti. The corporate obtained accelerator assist from Flat6 and later from the French Tech Ticket program, which offered €50,000 and a three-year residency in France.
Skylar Labs was ultimately acquired, marking Hassan’s first profitable exit—the acquisition worth stays undisclosed. Hassan returned to Nigeria.
Again in Lagos, he launched OyaPay, a cell app for offline funds by way of QR codes and Bluetooth. It was progressive however faltered attributable to disputes with an angel investor—his uncle, who’d backed him. “He’s an awesome individual, however older traders assume in a different way,” Hassan says. The failure stung, however Hassan reconnected with Akinlade. This time, their dialog led to a concrete supply: Hassan joined Paystack, bringing two key members of his OyaPay group with him.
There, he labored quite a bit on the service provider options and dashboards. And it was in the middle of this job that the concept for what would later turn into Mono started to crystallise. Card funds have been booming—Paystack processed over ₦10 billion in month-to-month transaction worth for the primary time in 2018 when he joined—however he felt stressed. “I stored considering, there’s extra after card funds,” he says.
The unintentional beginning of Mono
In 2019, Abdul and his Mono co-founder, Prakhar Singh, have been tinkering with a facet undertaking: an app to view all their financial institution balances in a single place. “I simply needed to see my cash,” he says. On the time, Nigeria’s open banking ecosystem was nonexistent, and rivals like Okra, a primary mover, had APIs and documentation that proved irritating to make use of typically. Annoyed, Hassan determined to construct his personal API, beginning with GTBank.
A Medium publish asserting the app’s launch in 2020 sparked sudden curiosity, not within the app, however in its underlying API. Hassan says Carbon’s CEO, Chijioke Dozie, reached out asking for the API. However Hassan was sceptical. “I had ₦500,000 in my account. Okra had $1 million. I wasn’t going to compete,” he recollects. However Dozie insisted, and over a weekend, Hassan’s group cobbled collectively an API. Carbon examined it, liked its pace, and urged him to construct an organization. “That’s once I realised this was larger than an app,” he says. Unprompted, a preferred founder invested $100,000. “He didn’t know me personally however was impressed by my observe report and the group’s speedy execution.”
Hassan says the corporate grew rapidly by means of phrase of mouth. “Our documentation is so clear, even a non-developer can perceive it,” he explains. Alongside the way in which, Carbon and Piggyvest, early prospects, grew to become traders.
Mono’s core providing is deceptively easy: APIs that allow fintechs entry financial institution statements, course of direct debit funds, and confirm identities. It’s the plumbing behind seamless onboarding, lending, and pockets funding for firms like Mastercard, Carbon, Piggyvest, and numerous others.
The corporate acquired into Y Combinator with mounting investor confidence and has raised over $15 million. Hassan claims the corporate makes income that almost covers its payroll for its employees of beneath 50. Mono has made no layoffs regardless of market turbulence and funding downturn, Hassan claims, including that he avoids poaching employees for different firms and prefers to rent and prepare junior and mid-level expertise and promotes internally. “Poaching doesn’t work,” he says. “Somebody with extra money will take them.” This preserves tradition and context and has enabled Mono to maneuver quick with out burning money. “We’re Ijebu folks,” he jokes. “We all know tips on how to handle cash.”
A world with out friction, a Mono world
At its core, Mono is about eradicating friction. Earlier than Mono, mortgage approvals in Nigeria may take weeks, requiring bodily financial institution statements. Now, with Mono’s infrastructure, lenders can entry real-time information, slashing approval time to minutes. “Somebody advised me they acquired a mortgage in an emergency due to us,” Hassan says, his voice lighting up. “That’s the influence I dwell for.”
Now he’s making an attempt to take away the friction in funds. Owo is Mono’s daring leap into the buyer market. A small group inside his firm has been engaged on the product which permits customers to make funds on WhatsApp, which about 57 million Nigerians have already got on their telephones. “You haven’t seen any cell utility that has 60 million downloads. That’s larger than any channel,” Hassan exclaimed.
Launched quietly, it has already processed a staggering ₦1 billion in transactions pre-launch, Hassan says. Customers can immediate transfers by way of texts, photographs, and voice notes. It additionally has options like QR code scanning, automated airtime top-ups, and really quickly it is going to allow cross-border funds in order that anybody coming into Nigeria could make USD to Naira transactions by way of Apple Pay or Google Pay wallets. Probably the most thrilling factor for Hassan is that anybody can use it, from Gen Zs’ to his 72-year-old mom. “ My mom doesn’t use financial institution apps, however she is aware of WhatsApp,” he says.
I ask if he’s frightened about platform threat—WhatsApp is ubiquitous however is foreign-owned and has had existential clashes with the federal government. Hassan acknowledges the dangers however thinks it’s minimal as it’s unlikely that Meta would abandon its African market the place the platform has turn into so entrenched in enterprise and tradition. “We’ve got gotten approval from Meta to function as a monetary service supplier on the platform, however we’re not betting on one platform,” Hassan says. The service shall be accessible on iMessage, Telegram, and different safe platforms. “We’re the place folks already are.”
One of many technical class of Owo lies in its deposit-light strategy. Not like wallets, it holds no funds and easily facilitates transfers between Central Financial institution-regulated establishments. This can be a contrarian strategy in a fintech ecosystem the place many startups are vying to be the primary selection for patrons’ deposits. This strategy reveals one of many basic paradigms that Hassan operates with. “[Fintechs] are usually not right here to compete with banks. Banks are one of the best place to retailer cash,” he insists, citing their regulation by the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN) and uncommon cases of failure. He holds a microfinance financial institution license however deems it an instrument that enhances credibility to conventional establishments, which he considers as companions. “We assist them give attention to safety and development whereas we deal with the spending expertise.”
Abdul’s worldview is formed by a rejection of zero-sum considering. The place some fintech founders rail towards banks’ forms, he sees partnership. “Banks have been right here for many years. They know safety and cash administration,” he says. Mono enhances this by specializing in person expertise—spending, onboarding, verification—areas the place banks lag.
This philosophy extends to Owo, which he predicts will dominate spending in 5 years. “Banks aren’t right here to construct lovely apps,” he says. “Their job is to maintain your cash secure.” He believes that it’s the most profitable approach for fintechs to derive probably the most worth within the African market.
Hassan has extra basic causes for his aversion to holding funds. In 2022, Mono briefly ventured into digital accounts and USD card issuing, a “shiny” development that appeared extra engaging after a significant issuer within the area confronted important operational points. Whereas this foray proved to be a profitable facet street, producing substantial income, it finally grew to become a major distraction from Mono’s core mission.
“We didn’t personal the infrastructure end-to-end,” Hassan explains. It was typical of Mono to personal its whole infrastructure due to how this reliance on third-party APIs led to inconsistent person experiences. Going towards the corporate’s values proved pricey: when these third-party suppliers failed, it straight impacted Mono’s popularity. “I don’t need to get up each morning considering I’ve one trillion folks’s cash in my hand. All I need to take into consideration is that I’m ready that will help you spend the cash that you simply’ve safely saved in a licensed financial institution with a greater expertise.”
Leaving a mark in all places
On the finish of our almost 90-minute name, Hassan is hungry—he has shuttled from one assembly to a different, but his vitality stays infectious, his ardour undimmed after a virtually two-hour name, and after 5 years within the trenches of entrepreneurship. Hassan recollects that somebody as soon as questioned why he hadn’t simply given up and brought a job at a Silicon Valley startup.
“It’s not concerning the cash,” he says. “It’s about constructing one thing folks use, one thing that adjustments lives.” For him, the work isn’t completed till Mono’s infrastructure is the spine of each fintech app in Africa. “If I open an app and don’t see Mono, we’ve failed,” he says.
Till then, he’ll preserve constructing.
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