PayTic, which modernizes payment operations for financial companies, has closed a US$4 million ($5.7 million) extension of its seed round, backed by such investors as Build Ventures, Concrete Ventures and Island Capital Partners.

CEO Imad Boumahdi founded PayTic in 2020 on the premise that most fintech solutions address the way end-users interact with financial companies. What he set out to do was to improve the efficiency of these companies in processing payments at the back end.

The company, which is based in Charlottetown and Casablanca, has a range of customers including banks, fintechs, and processors in such locations as Morocco, the U.K., Middle East, and North America.

“Backing PayTic from the start and continuing our support in the seed extension is a testament to our confidence in the team’s vision, execution, and ability to drive meaningful change in the industry,” said Build Ventures Partner Rob Barbara in a statement. “We believe PayTic is building something truly transformative, and we’re excited to be part of their continued growth.”

PayTic’s statement, released Monday, said the funding extension was led by the private equity firm AfricInvest through its Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, or CAIF. Other investors include Axian Group, and Mistral.

This round follows on from a $2.95 million funding round closed in May 2022, which Halifax-based Build Ventures led. Concrete Ventures and Island Capital Partners also participated in the earlier round.  

Since then, PayTic has gained clients for its solution, which automates and modernizes day-to-day operations for financial institutions. The company says it enables scalability of payments and eliminates manual processes. Last summer, PayTic won the Accounting Tech of the Year award at the European Fintech Awards, a competition organized by trade publication FinTech Intel.

"This investment represents global recognition of the progress we are making," said Boumahdi in Monday’s statement. "It also brings more expertise to the table, which will help us shape PayTic's future together."

PayTic said it is now accelerating the future of payment reconciliation with the imminent launch of its innovative, no-code, and processor-agnostic module. Payment reconciliation is a process that matches transaction records (like bank statements and internal accounting records) to ensure accurate payments. PayTic calls its new product a leap forward that promises to dramatically reduce reconciliation times and complexity, delivering unparalleled agility for businesses in a rapidly evolving market.

With the new funding round, PayTic is gaining access to the network and experience of the Africinvest Group, which has been active for more than three decades in Africa's financial services sector. Through this investment, CAIF said it seeks to further drive financial inclusion in Africa by championing a startup that creates efficiencies within digital financial services.

“We were surprised when we discovered that payment reconciliation is a challenge not only for African companies but globally,” said CAIF Senior Manager Lavanya Anand in the statement. “The status quo is back-office teams using manual processes and Excel, which is inefficient especially as companies start to scale. Paytic has a global vision to address this issue, initially starting with software to automate card payments reconciliation and chargeback management.”