As technology evolves, more and more people are going cashless, embracing digital payments, and would rather buy from or patronize the services of business owners that offer these forms of payment methods.
With this growing trend, it’s not uncommon to find a lot of business owners struggling to meet the payment needs of different customers, as they are unable to provide all of these diverse forms of digital payments at a go.
In store A, customer doesn’t have cash, and would like to do a transfer, but the business owner accepts just cash and POS payments – making the customer leave without making a purchase. In store B, customer has just an ATM card, and would like to pay via POS, but the business owner doesn’t have one.
There is now a need to bridge this payment gap, and this is what Collect Africa has been up to since its launch in December 2021.
Founded by Abraham Ojes and Wale Martins, Collect Africa is a payment platform bringing all the available payment methods into one dashboard, enabling business owners to receive payments across all sales channels, monitor and manage their businesses.
The platform enables business owners to accept payments through all existing and available methods like bank transfer, POS and online channels, helping them give their customers the freedom to pay any way they want, and ensuring no sale is lost.
Businesses that run ecommerce stores can also incorporate Collect into their platforms seamlessly using a simple to integrate API, and only a few lines of code.
You can say, Collect has all your payment needs in one place!
A sneak peek into the app features
For Collect Africa, it’s all about enabling businesses to accept payments, and every feature on the app helps to make this happen.
Business Account
It’s no news that opening a business account with traditional banks comes with tons of requirements, forms to be filled and guarantors to be presented, and the instant business account is one feature that according to the Collect team has endeared thousands of business owners to the platform since its inception.
The startup has a web app, and mobile app available on Google Playstore and App Store, and on sign up, users get a bank account instantly. This account is where business owners receive all their funds, whether they get paid online, via POS or through bank transfer.
Business owners only have to submit their CAC business registration certificate to validate that they are certified businesses.
For business owners with unregistered businesses, but looking to accept payments easily and access all the features on Collect Africa – the platform offers a ‘Freelancer Account’ that enables them to get account numbers in their names.
Invoices
According to the Collect Africa team, their invoice feature is “invoice on steroids”. Business owners are able to create invoices on the same dashboard and send to the emails of their customers.
These invoices are delivered with payment links that direct users to a page where they can pay via direct debit, available online channels and even bank transfer. Each invoice carries a unique account number that enables customers to make transfers and gives business owners the ability to track the status of invoices sent.
Payment Links
Businesses that run online are not spared from the challenges that come with accepting payments through just one form of payment method – bank transfer.
How about giving customers the ability to pay online on days when their bank networks are down?
This is where the payment link feature on Collect Africa comes in. Business owners can create payment links for a one-time payment or an ongoing payment, share with customers, who in turn click on the link and access a diverse list of payment methods.
Revenue Analytics
Without a single payment channel, what’s normal for business owners will be trying to catch up on monitoring their daily inflow/outflow, and calculating manually. By accepting payments on Collect, daily, monthly and yearly transaction inflow/outflow is automatically calculated. This enables business owners to monitor their revenue on a regular basis, know the pulse of their business and in turn take action for growth.
Collect so far….
Since its launch 6 months ago, Collect has processed millions of dollars in transactions, with thousands of business owners accepting payments easily and giving their customers multiple payment options.
Collect was one of the 21 African startups selected for the inaugural ODX accelerator programme, where they raised $125,000. Previously, they were one of 8 fintech startups selected for the GreenHouse Lab accelerator programme, which provided them with $10,000 towards their pre-seed round.
With more features in the works for both online and offline businesses, Collect is simplifying the future of payments by providing a range of benefits for both merchants and their customers.
To find out more, visit the website or download the app from Google Playstore and App Store.
