Bani
1 known investors
African cross-border payment infrastructure letting businesses collect local payments and settle in minutes via local rails and stablecoins.
Also known as Bani Africa · getbani
Investors · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Bani provides cross-border payment infrastructure for African businesses, offering a single API and hosted checkout through which merchants collect local payments and make payouts. Supported collection methods include bank transfer in Nigeria, mobile money across multiple African markets, virtual accounts, e-wallet transactions, cash, third-party wallet services, and cryptocurrency, covering both stablecoins (USDC, USDT, BUSD, DAI) and non-stablecoins (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Tron, BNB). The company integrates directly with banks and settles using local currency rails and stablecoin settlement, positioning itself against the correspondent-banking route in which an intra-African payment is converted to dollars, routed through New York correspondents, and delivered in three to seven business days.
The product surface includes the Bani Checkout widget, documented APIs, a merchant dashboard with API keys and webhooks, and an open-source WooCommerce plugin ("Bani Payments for WooCommerce") that adds Bani as a payment method to WooCommerce stores, supports refunds from the order details page, test/live API key modes, and, from 2025 releases, WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage and Checkout Blocks. The company states merchants can go from signup to a first live transaction in about 15 minutes and that customers save up to 25 per cent on cross-border transaction costs relative to traditional channels.
Bani is an alumnus of Google's startup ecosystem programs, builds on Google Cloud, and was selected for the 10th cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, an equity-free program providing technical mentorship and cloud credits.
Founding story
Bani was co-founded by CEO Rodney Jackson-Cole, previously co-founder and chief technology officer of Y Combinator-backed Nigerian business banking company Prospa and earlier director and CTO at NestBank. He has said the company was created because payment rails, rather than account opening, were the persistent constraint: at Prospa small businesses could open accounts in five minutes but then waited five days to pay a supplier in China.
Business model
Bani sells payment collection and payout infrastructure to businesses, integrated via APIs, a hosted checkout and e-commerce plugins, with what it describes as simple, transparent pricing and no hidden charges or setup fees. The company states it operates on its own revenue.
Transaction-based payment processing for merchants, promoted as low-cost cardless payments with no setup fees or hidden charges.
Traction
The company states that thousands of businesses of all sizes use its products for cardless collections and payouts, and that it runs on its own revenue having raised about $100,000 to date. Its WooCommerce plugin reports 10+ active installations and no reviews. Its accelerator cohort of 15 startups collectively secured $1.1 million in early-stage capital.
Latest developments
In coverage published shortly before this profile was compiled, CEO Rodney Jackson-Cole briefed journalists and creators at Google's Lagos office on Bani's plan to settle African payments in minutes, saying near-term work involves adding currencies, deepening bank integrations and meeting compliance requirements in new markets. The WooCommerce plugin received three releases in October 2025 adding HPOS and Checkout Blocks support and security fixes, including an XSS vulnerability fix.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Bani is one of a group of African fintechs and institutions, alongside efforts such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, seeking to keep intra-African payments on African rails as global banks retrench from African correspondent banking (Barclays completed its African exit in 2022 and Standard Chartered has divested businesses in several African markets). Africa's cross-border payments market was estimated at $329 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2035. Bani has been characterised as pre-seed stage with 1-10 employees.
Settlement in minutes rather than days using local currency rails and stablecoins, direct bank integrations, cardless payment coverage across mobile money in 8+ African countries plus Nigerian bank transfer and global crypto, stated savings of up to 25 per cent on cross-border costs, and a deliberately bootstrapped, revenue-first approach; management describes per-market regulatory compliance and daily multi-jurisdiction operation as the core moat.
Technology
A single payments API with checkout widget, webhooks and merchant dashboard, direct bank integrations, mobile money connections, virtual accounts and e-wallets, distributed ledger technology / stablecoin settlement (including Solana-based USDC and USDT flows in the checkout demo), built on Google Cloud. The WooCommerce plugin adds payment signature validation, file integrity checks and WooCommerce CRUD-based order handling.
Go-to-market
Self-serve merchant onboarding (signup to first transaction in as little as 15 minutes), a public checkout demo, documented APIs for custom integrations, and a free WordPress/WooCommerce plugin distributed through the WordPress plugin directory. The company also gains visibility through Google for Startups Accelerator Africa participation and founder-led press briefings.
African businesses that need to collect local payments and pay suppliers abroad, including e-commerce merchants, fintechs and importers/traders operating on corridors such as West Africa to East Africa and Nigeria to China.
Geography
Operations span Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Benin and additional markets listed as Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Malawi and Sierra Leone; mobile money collection is offered in Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Mali, Tanzania and Senegal, bank transfer in Nigeria, and cryptocurrency globally. The company has been described as Nigerian-based, with one database listing Nairobi, Kenya as current headquarters and Kenya as founding headquarters. Target expansion corridors include West Africa to East Africa, Nigeria to China, and lanes opened by the African Continental Free Trade Area.
History
One report gives a founding year of 2022, while a startup database lists 2018 as the year established. The WooCommerce plugin's first release was July 2022, with subsequent releases through October 2025; in a May 2023 release note the company's website reference changed from getbani.com to bani.africa. Bani was selected for the 10th cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, whose 15 AI-focused participants from eight countries presented in Nairobi.
Risks & controversies
The company is thinly capitalised, having raised roughly $100,000 and relying on internal revenue, in a sector characterised by large funding rounds. Reported details are inconsistent across sources on founding year (2018 versus 2022) and headquarters (Nigeria versus Nairobi, Kenya). Multi-market operation exposes it to compliance obligations across numerous regulatory regimes, and the October 2025 plugin releases disclosed a fixed cross-site scripting vulnerability. Global banks' continued withdrawal from African correspondent banking is an environmental constraint on cross-border payment providers.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsReleases 1.0.7-1.0.9 added WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage compatibility, Checkout Blocks support, payment signature validation, file integrity checks and an XSS vulnerability fix.
Bani was chosen for the accelerator's tenth cohort, which provided equity-free support, technical mentorship and cloud credits; the 15-startup cohort from eight countries presented in Nairobi and collectively secured $1.1 million in early-stage capital.
Version 1.0.0 of Bani's open-source WooCommerce payment plugin published to the WordPress plugin directory.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Bani Checkoutdemo-checkout.getbani.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Bani do?
- African cross-border payment infrastructure letting businesses collect local payments and settle in minutes via local rails and stablecoins.
- Who are Bani's investors?
- Bani's investors include Microtraction.