Union54, Zambia’s first startup to get into YC is developing Africa’s first card-issuing API.

It is no news the great influx of African countries that gain worthy entry into the YC.  In the last couple of years, we have witnessed over 30 African startups make their their way to the YC.

To further add to the list, a Zambian startup, Union5 has joined the league today.

Union54 (54 is like an allegiance to the number of countries in African) is a fintech company founded by Perseus Mlambo and Alessandra Martini. Though, they have just launched this year, they affirm to be Africa’s first card-issuing API.

Union54 is a project birthed from Zazu, the couple’s initial startup.

Zazu was established in 2015 as a Zambian challenger bank. Zazu had its own debit cards that users could connect to a wallet. They recorded their challenges of having to wait some 18months for domestic affiliated banks to issue their cards.

While this season lingered, the founders began to work with banks around the region to start issuing cards themselves. But the banks were not responsive enough.

 

According to Mlambo:

We just realized that either the processor or the bank was not necessarily well equipped to be able to answer our questions or to be able to give us the product that we’re looking for.

WHAT NEXT?

Union54 made the giant step to approach Mastercard. Fortunately, they got a Mastercard Principle membership, the first fintech from Africa.

Zazu became authorized to act as an ‘issuing bank’.  This meant they provided debit cards and as ‘acquirers’  which meant they provided transaction processing services.

 

HOW UNION54 CAME TO BE

The founders desired to advance African fintech and realized that to make headway,  it was important to make it easier for any African country’s fintech to issue virtual or physical debit cards. This was how Union54 sprung out from Zazu. The platform now has several APIs that make it simple for any fintech to issue programmable debit cards.

In response to providing the service for other African fintech, Mlambo said:

We’ve now used our membership to be able to help other companies, any African fintech who wants to issue their own cards. They can just come to us, plug into our APIs, and move quickly, without needing to spend a long time negotiating.

 

According to the CEO, their focus is on fintechs that don’t want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in setup fees to get virtual or physical cards. They also affirm to issue cards in weeks via an API that does BIN sponsorship, program management and settlement, among other features.

The ability to do the above-mentioned is one of the things that give Union54 the bragging rights as Africa’s first card-issuing API; filling the void that other fintechs aren’t doing currently.

Currently, most fintechs trying to create virtual and physical cards for their customers have faced complications doing so.

The fascinating thing about these companies is that they are not B or C players. They are in the top 5% of African fintech. And for me, I always tell people, we’re now in the golden generation of African fintech. So it’s really the perfect time for a card-issuing product to be able to work with all of these guys considered leaders in their space. It means we really do have something that people want to use every day.

The CEO added.

Currently, there are eight use cases for its API: ledger-based, acquirers/gateways, buy now, pay later, credit union, delivery companies, digital banking, credit card management and corporate cards.

Fintechs using their platform are able to design their cards and set the currency in which they want the cards to be charged, and so much more benefits.