Cardtonic Raises $2.1M for African Business Spend Infrastructure

Nigerian fintech innovator, Cardtonic, has successfully closed a $2.1 million seed funding round, signaling a strategic pivot towards building essential financial infrastructure for businesses across Africa. This capital infusion is earmarked for the development of Pil, a dedicated platform designed to streamline and manage corporate expenditures.

The funding, exclusively sourced from angel investors, underscores a significant shift for Cardtonic, moving beyond its established consumer-facing services. While the company previously offered virtual dollar cards, gift cards, and eSIMs to individual users, Pil represents its inaugural venture into the B2B infrastructure space. This new offering aims to address the complex needs of companies grappling with recurring expenses, intricate approval workflows, and demanding accounting requirements.

Pil will empower African businesses to manage their spending more effectively by enabling card funding in local currencies like the naira and cedi, as well as stablecoins. The platform promises granular control over team spending, comprehensive tracking capabilities via a unified dashboard, and robust expense management features, a stark contrast to the often fragmented and unreliable solutions currently available.

This strategic move aligns with a broader trend observed within the African fintech ecosystem, where companies are increasingly focusing on owning and developing critical backend financial rails. Recent examples include payment giants expanding into banking services and deeper integration with payment processing networks. This evolution highlights a growing recognition that sustainable scaling in fintech often necessitates control over the underlying operational systems, rather than relying solely on consumer-facing applications.

The impetus for Pil reportedly stemmed from Cardtonic's own operational challenges. Co-founders Balogun Usman and Faturoti Kayode, alongside CEO Emmanuel Sohe, identified significant inefficiencies and escalating costs associated with managing internal subscriptions, advertising spend, and cross-border transactions. The company experienced firsthand the unreliability of existing payment methods, including unexpected card limit changes and transaction failures, prompting the development of an internal solution that has now been productized as Pil.

With the newly acquired capital, Cardtonic intends to establish Pil as a comprehensive operating system for business spending throughout the continent. Future development plans include enhanced spending controls, seamless integration with accounting software, and infrastructure capable of supporting high transaction volumes and large organizational structures. The company is targeting a January 2026 launch for the platform.

This seed funding round positions Cardtonic among a select group of African startups securing early-stage investment in a recovering, albeit uneven, venture capital market. The successful raise, particularly in the infrastructure segment, is a notable achievement for a company founded in 2019, demonstrating resilience and a clear vision for addressing unmet market needs.