D-

Dash (formerly Spektra) - 2018 Financial Model

Two-sided offering:

Merchant side (Spektra Checkout)

• 1-step seamless checkout vs. 6–10 step USSD flows from incumbents
• Works on web, mobile, in-app
• 10-minute integration (vs. up to 12 months with raw MNO APIs)
• Out-of-the-box: cross-border payments, fraud prevention, recurring payments, refunds, digital receipts, merchant dashboard/ledger

User side (Spektra Wallet)

• Mobile app: 1–2 taps to pay, works online & offline
• Cash-in/cash-out, multi-SIM, interoperability across MNOs
• Refunds, digital receipts, multi-currency, P2P payments, recurring payments
• Rewards/incentives, in-app customer support, third-party super-app services

Core technical moat: single API aggregating 270+ MNOs; removes per-provider integration burden.

• 690 million mobile money users across 90 countries
• $1 billion transacted per day via mobile money
• 440 million smartphone users in mobile-first countries
• Mobile money dominates Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, Latin America, Caribbean, SE Asia & Pacific
• Source cited: GSMA, 2017

TAM implied: ~$365B/year in mobile money transaction volume. No SAM/SOM breakdown or market-size dollar figure provided in the deck.

Not explicitly stated in the deck. No pricing slide, no fee schedule, no revenue model breakdown. Likely transaction-fee model (take-rate on GMV processed), consistent with comparable payment gateways in the market (Flutterwave, Paystack, Cellulant typically charge 1–2.5% per transaction). Rationale: this is the standard model for the cited competitors and for Alipay (the stated analog). Possible secondary revenue: SaaS/API subscription fees for merchants; premium wallet features or interchange on user side. No evidence in deck.

• Founder invested $20,000 to date
• No customers, revenue, GMV, transaction volume, or growth figures shown
• Deck implies pre-revenue / pre-product (raising to get regulatory clearance and serve "initial customers")

Local competitors: PesaPal (Kenya), Flutterwave (Nigeria), Direct Pay Online/DPO (Kenya), Beyonic (Uganda), Paystack (Nigeria), Cellulant (Kenya), Hubtel (Ghana)

Global competitors: PayPal, Mastercard (MasterPass), Visa (M-Visa), GrabPay, Google Pay

Stated moat / differentiation:

• Single unified API across MNOs (vs. fragmented per-provider integration)
• 1-step checkout experience (vs. 6–10 step USSD flows)
• 10-minute merchant integration (vs. up to 12 months)
• Consumer wallet with interoperability across SIMs/MNOs - none of the local competitors offer both merchant and user sides together

Team:

• Prince Boakye Boampong - Founder & CEO; 12 years software development experience
• Prior: Standard Bank (Africa's largest bank, consultant); Pioneer Fund (Investor/Venture Partner); OMG Digital Inc. (Y Combinator S16, Founder & CEO)
• No other team members shown

Funding:

• Already invested: $20,000 (founder)
• Raising: $100,000 Pre-Seed
• Use of funds: regulatory clearance, serve initial customers, hit seed-funding milestones

No valuation, equity %, or cap table information disclosed.

• Archetype + why: Payments/FinTech GMV take-rate model with 3-statement underpinning. The business is a two-sided payment gateway - the correct P&L driver is GMV processed × take-rate, matching Flutterwave/Paystack comps. A full 3-statement is appropriate given the need to model regulatory capital, operating burn, and seed-round timing.

• Forecast horizon & granularity: 3 years monthly (Month 1–36), switching to quarterly in years 2–3. Pre-revenue through ~Month 6 while regulatory clearance is obtained; revenue ramps in Year 1 thereafter.

• Key drivers & assumptions:
• *Addressable market entry:* launch in 1–2 anchor countries (Kenya, Ghana)
• *Merchant acquisition:* number of active merchants onboarded per month
• *GMV per merchant per month:*
• *Take-rate:*
• *MNO settlement/cost of revenue:*
• *Regulatory timeline:*
• *Headcount:*
• *CAC (merchant):*
• *User wallet adoption:*
• *Pre-seed cash:* $120,000 total ($20k founder + $100k raise)

• Scenarios (Base / Bull / Bear - which variables flex):
• *Bear:* regulatory delay extends 9–12 months; merchant ramp 50% slower; take-rate compressed to 1.0%
• *Base:* regulatory clearance in 6 months; merchants ramp per assumptions above; 1.5% take-rate
• *Bull:* regulatory clearance in 3 months; 2x merchant ramp; 2.0% blended take-rate; wallet user monetization begins Year 2

• Required sheets / outputs:

1. Assumptions dashboard (all drivers centralized)
2. GMV build (merchants × avg GMV/merchant)
3. Revenue P&L (take-rate revenue, COGS/settlement fees, gross profit)
4. Operating expense build (headcount, tech/cloud, compliance/regulatory, marketing)
5. EBITDA bridge
6. Cash flow & runway (critical: pre-revenue burn + pre-seed cash = runway to seed)
7. Balance sheet (simplified)
8. Scenario toggle (Bear/Base/Bull)
9. KPI dashboard: GMV, active merchants, take-rate, gross margin %, cash runway