About
Duplo builds a unified B2B payments and spend-management platform for African SMEs and mid-market enterprises. It combines payments, collections, approvals, expense management, reconciliation, and reporting in one local-first platform designed for the complexity of African commerce.
Market
Duplo competes in Africa's B2B fintech market across business payments, spend management, and financial operations software. It positions itself as a local-first financial operating system for SMEs and mid-market enterprises, combining payments, expenses, approvals, invoicing, reconciliation, and reporting in one platform; this broader workflow coverage differentiates it from payment gateways such as Paystack and Flutterwave and narrower card- or expense-management platforms such as Bujeti.
Duplo targets African SMEs, mid-market companies, and larger B2B enterprises with complex vendor payments, expenses, approvals, reconciliation, and reporting needs. Its primary users are likely finance and operations teams seeking to automate financial workflows and improve cash-flow visibility.
At a Glance
Problem
Duplo addresses the slow, manual, and fragmented way African businesses manage B2B money movement. Businesses often rely on manual invoices, cash-based processes, bank-statement matching, and disconnected approval workflows. The pain is operationally expensive: B2B transactions involve larger payment sizes and volumes, while 44% of surveyed businesses reported waiting more than 24 hours to receive payments from customers and partners. Duplo’s clearest initial use case was FMCG distribution, where distributors needed to collect digitally from retailer networks, reconcile receipts, and pay vendors, manufacturers, and suppliers faster.
The economics are compelling because delays tie up working capital, manual reconciliation consumes finance-team time, and inefficient workflows can restrict transaction volume. In its early pilot, Duplo reported that customers achieved more than 12% cost savings, while instant payments enabled FMCG distributors to transact in larger quantities and improve cash-flow visibility.
Product / Service
Duplo is a unified financial-operations platform for African businesses. It centralizes local and international payments, collections, approvals, expense management, invoicing, automatic reconciliation, tax workflows, and financial reporting in one system. Finance teams can manage expenses and approval chains, issue and track NRS-compliant e-invoices, make bulk payments, monitor spend in real time, and connect transactions with accounting tools such as Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage.
The platform is delivered both as an operating interface for finance teams and through APIs that can embed virtual accounts, payouts, foreign-exchange conversion, approvals, and reporting into other products. Its benefit is replacing fragmented payment administration with an auditable workflow that improves control and speed: Duplo targets rapid settlement, real-time reconciliation, and payments in more than 80 currencies across over 160 countries. It also has a South African offering, supported by Ozow’s account-to-account payment rails.
Market
Duplo competes in the African B2B payments, spend-management, accounts-payable automation, and broader financial-operations software market. Its target customers are SMEs, mid-market companies, large enterprises, and finance teams managing recurring supplier payments, collections, expenses, and reconciliation. The opportunity is substantial: the sub-Saharan African B2B payments market was characterized as a $1.5 trillion market in 2022, while the broader African SME payments market remains significantly under-digitized. The research does not establish a definitive named direct competitor set; Duplo is instead positioned against a mix of payment gateways, ERP/accounting systems, and standalone expense or AP tools. Ozow is a strategic payment-rail partner in South Africa rather than a direct competitor.
Duplo has demonstrated early commercial traction rather than appearing purely pre-revenue. It went live in January 2022, initially serving FMCG distributors and later finance teams at midsize and enterprise businesses; its 2022 reporting cited 20-plus enterprise customers, more than 12% pilot-period cost savings, 1,000% growth in businesses on the platform over three months, and 4,200% growth in total payment volume over five months. It also raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round and an oversubscribed $4.3 million seed round in 2022, and its current site presents case studies from hundreds of businesses. More recent evidence includes expansion into South Africa through the Ozow partnership, although the supplied sources do not disclose current revenue or payment-volume figures.
Founders & Leadership
Funding History
Oui Capital
Soma Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Tribe Capital, Commerce Ventures, Y Combinator, Oui Capital, Alumni Ventures
Recent News
Duplo partnered with Wema Bank to embed its financial-operations platform into ALAT by Wema Bank for business customers. The integration supports payments, expense management, invoice generation and collections, vendor payments, reporting, and workflow controls, with existing ALAT business customers receiving three months of complimentary access.
Duplo partnered with South African payment gateway Ozow to combine Ozow’s payment infrastructure with Duplo’s financial operating system. The integration automates invoicing, payment reconciliation, expense management, and vendor payouts in a unified platform.
Duplo secured Systems Integrator and Access Point Provider licences from Nigeria’s Revenue Service ahead of the country’s mandatory e-invoicing rollout. The accreditation enables businesses to generate and transmit compliant e-invoices, connect existing ERP systems, and settle and reconcile payments through Duplo.
Duplo entered a strategic partnership with Loita Business to combine Duplo’s payment-automation capabilities with Loita’s merchant network and regional reach. The planned ecosystem covers business payments, procurement, financing, and expense management across markets including South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Duplo launched international payments for Nigerian businesses, allowing transfers to more than 160 countries in over 80 currencies from its platform. The update also introduced compliance-automation features including automated KYC submission, document validation, verification-status tracking, and secure document storage.
Active Roles
7Business Model
Duplo monetizes through business pricing plans and transaction fees on collections. Its pricing page lists collection fees of 0.5%, 0.3%, and 0.1% across offerings, with bulk discounts and custom sales for white-label, API, and integrated solutions.