She Raised $80 Million To Build A FinTech Company To Help Accelerate Economic Growth In Africa

Elizabeth Rossiello, founder and CEO of AZA Finance, has been riding the wave of startup life since 2013. Over the past decade, she has steered her company through 16 “crypto winters” and raised over $80M.

Elizabeth’s journey is not just inspiring because of the impressive figures but also because of her resilience, adaptability, and vision in navigating the ever-evolving fintech landscape.

From her roots in Queens, New York, to becoming a leading figure in African fintech, Elizabeth’s story is one of perseverance, self-discovery, and revolutionary impact.

Listen to the full podcast episode and review the transcript here.

A Multicultural Upbringing in Queens

Elizabeth was born and raised in Queens, New York, one of the most diverse areas in the U.S. “Everyone in my elementary school was from a different country,” she recalls. Growing up in such a multicultural environment profoundly shaped her worldview.

“I was representing my culture to others all the time,” she explains, adding that this experience honed her communication skills and ability to relate to people with different perspectives. Growing up in an immigrant neighborhood transformed Elizabeth into a cultural representative of a kind.

She remembers being an Italian American representative to her friends, talking about her family traditions, background, the food they ate at home, and what set them apart from other kids. This experience made her a little founder, setting the stage for Elizabeth’s future endeavors.

They set the tone for her leadership skills and how her team today communicates, although they come from diverse backgrounds from different corners of the world.

Elizabeth’s neighborhood, though tough, taught her resilience. “If I wanted to get out and see the world, I had to do it myself.” That determination drove her from Queens to a prestigious school in Manhattan and eventually to Europe after completing her undergraduate degree.

Elizabeth recalls that she had no knowledge of her career options but knew that smart people could go places. One of her first internships was with a friend’s mother, a lawyer working in a hospital. This was Elizabeth’s first exposure to policy.

Next, she took a politics class, where her teacher inspired her to intern in Germany since she could speak German. Each experience was like a stepping stone to building her skill sets.

Eventually, Elizabeth went on to get a degree at Columbia University at the School of International Affairs. The prerequisite for studying here was knowing two to three foreign languages.

Here, she started taking classes at the engineering and business schools. Covering her student loans was an added motivation.

From Government to Banking: The Path to Microfinance

Elizabeth’s professional journey began in government, a natural fit given her family’s background in public service. However, she always sought more. “A lot of my career has been taking a step forward with what I knew and then looking around and realizing, ‘Oh, I can go higher.'”

This mindset propelled Elizabeth into the world of banking, where she gained exposure to microfinance. Her time in finance was both rewarding and challenging and proved to be a segue into becoming a founder. She recalls building the right thought processes during her time there.

By 2007, Elizabeth was working in prime brokerage, sales, and trading at Credit Suisse in Zurich. She spoke different languages and was considered a rising star as an analyst, traveling back and forth between New York, London, and Zurich.

Elizabeth excelled at Credit Suisse but found the culture unwelcoming, especially for women. “I hated the way women were treated,” she says. Her discontent led her to explore other avenues, including the then-emerging field of microfinance.

The timing was perfect–Muhammad Yunus had just won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in microfinance, sparking global interest in the sector. Although Credit Suisse has also created a microfinance division to invest in this new finance class, Elizabeth was ready to transition.

Discovering Opportunity in Africa

In a twist of fate, Elizabeth applied for a microfinance job in Manila but was sent to Nairobi, Kenya, instead. This move proved pivotal. “Nairobi was booming, and the financial sector was thriving,” she says, recalling the city’s vibrant energy.

Traveling across the African continent, Elizabeth visited banks and analyzed their technologies, risks, trading, products, and portfolios. She traveled by bus and motorcycle to different locations and would end up on the local microfinance board as a European board member.

Interacting with different people, Elizabeth discovered inefficiencies in how banks were funded—primarily through foreign currencies like the dollar and euro. However, they were lending in local currency. This realization became the seed of her entrepreneurial journey.

Elizabeth recalls how she started mentioning the facts in her research reports and training sessions. She also started picking up side hustle gigs with different organizations doing training in microfinance or giving talks about legislation.

Taking the Leap: Founding AZA Finance

Elizabeth didn’t initially see herself as an entrepreneur. “There is no entrepreneur bone,” she reflects. But after losing her job and struggling to make ends meet with consulting gigs, a mentor encouraged her to take the plunge.

The backing of a seed investor who gave Elizabeth $50K to cover her first few months of operations helped her found BitPesa (later rebranded to AZA Finance). It would become the first company in the world to trade African currencies against crypto and the first to trade crypto against mobile money.

Elizabeth had secured an additional $50K from the World Bank by month three. She was attracting attention from notable crypto investors like Barry Silbert of DCG, Peter Smith, the Co-Founder and CEO of Blockchain, Charles Hoskinson, and Nick Carey.

AZA Finance launched a groundbreaking retail model, allowing users to trade Kenyan Shillings for Bitcoin via M-PESA, the mobile money wallet. The Bitcoin was delivered straight into the M-PESA mobile money wallet, allowing traders to buy and sell in seconds.

This innovation garnered international attention, positioning Elizabeth and her company as pioneers in the African fintech space.

Navigating Legal Challenges and Building a Legacy

Success, however, was not without its challenges. Just a year into operations, the Kenyan government and Safaricom, a local telecommunications giant, sued BitPesa for using their platform–even though AZA Finance was paying for the service and using it like everyone else.

Rather than back down, Elizabeth fought back, taking on the largest monopoly in Kenya. “We got trashed in the press,” she recalls, but the experience only strengthened her resolve. “It builds thick skin,” she says, reflecting on the lessons learned during that tumultuous period.

Despite the legal battles, Elizabeth remained focused on her mission. The early blockchain and crypto community’s values-driven ethos resonated deeply with her. “We were like, let’s change the world,” she says.

This passion for innovation and disruption kept Elizabeth going, even in the face of adversity. Having worked in investment banking and the development finance spaces, she was determined to find solutions for the profit-minded, colonial mindset.

Raising Capital and Scaling AZA Finance

Elizabeth’s journey as a female founder in fintech, especially in Africa and crypto, came with its own set of challenges. “Only 2% of capital is available to female founders,” she notes, highlighting the uphill battle she faced.

Despite the hurdles, AZA Finance managed to raise over $80M, attracting investors like Pantera Capital, Draper, and Greycroft. However, the fundraising journey was anything but smooth. Elizabeth also realized that building something in Africa would take much longer than in Europe.

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Even so, in 2015, just two years later, AZA was licensed by the FCA as one of the first companies with blockchain in their payments plan. And it got that license with almost no funding. Soon, AZA was growing, earning revenues, and ready to expand to West Africa.

Elizabeth remained steadfast in her vision to create a pan-African payments network, expanding AZA Finance’s operations to West Africa. They got lean, and as revenues grew, they made the leap of leaving Kenya.

Elizabeth recalls how her co-founder went to the UK; she went to Nigeria, but the team stayed in Kenya. The company continued expanding and moving into other markets. However, they didn’t really see venture capitalists interested in building an infrastructure company.

“They were more interested in quick returns than building a long-term infrastructure,” Elizabeth says. As crypto came in and out of favor in different cycles, AZA Finance would either attract crypto funding or be repelled by trad-fi or non-crypto investors.

Dealing with Government Policy Changes

Although it was a wild ride up and down, Elizabeth recalls that they were doing well. They had considerable revenues in one market in Nigeria and were profitable.

Then, the Nigerian government decided to shut down all international companies and stop using local currency as a payment mechanism, allowing only dollar payments.

This major setback came in January 2021, and AZA Finance went from millions of dollars of monthly revenue to hundreds of dollars in just one month. A couple of companies also exited the market.

Amidst the chaos, Elizabeth exhibited her hard-won resilience. She and her team took the cash they had, bought a company in South Africa they had been working on buying, and deployed all of their cash to open up new markets.

Rebuilding AZA Finance

Although it was a lot of hard work, Elizabeth and her co-founders rebuilt the company from being an almost purely Nigerian company with a bit of Kenyan business to capturing Ghana, Central Africa, West Africa, and South African markets.

By the last six months of the year, AZA Finance regained its ARR, going from almost zero revenue to over $10M in all new markets—this phenomenal turnaround stunned investors who had hesitated to back the new company.

Elizabeth recalls how they struggled with the concept, demonstrating the resilience, know-how, and team they used to build on the African continent–something investors couldn’t understand. AZA Finance did attract funding from the FTX and Development Bank of South Africa.

Fast forward to the present, Elizabeth talks about how AZA is attracting interest in the infrastructure they’ve built from many strategic partners.

Building a Robust Culture

As Elizabeth recounts, life at AZA has always been unpredictable, but the team has learned to embrace the chaos. The company remains true to its core values, regardless of external pressures.

As Elizabeth explains, she knew the fundamentals of the company, its culture, and values and refused to compromise them, even when engaging with different markets and diverse cultures.

For instance, when external partners suggested wiping Slack channels, she stood firm, maintaining that such actions went against their company culture. These decisions reinforced their identity while expanding into new markets.

Despite some setbacks, including the collapse of key partners, the team persevered, taking nearly a year and a half to repair relationships with regulators, advisors, the authorities, and their clients.

Looking Back at the Challenges and the Road Ahead

Elizabeth reflected on her experiences of navigating multiple challenges, including 16 crypto winters and regulatory battles with the government. Surviving these cycles was driven by a larger purpose that attracted investors, customers, and employees alike.

However, beyond equity funding, Elizabeth struggled with securing debt investments for AZA Finance, which was essential for growth post-seed stage. When she first started working in Africa, she saw that several global microfinance institutions were lending in dollars and euros remotely.

These lenders didn’t understand the business models and this problem still stands today. Many lenders available are development or quasi-private lenders with non-commercial metrics, making it difficult for borrowing companies to scale.

AZA Finance pioneered alternative financing methods, often finding themselves at the forefront of innovation in this area. For instance, Elizabeth was among the first companies to take debt from clients and partners.

Her motivation stems from the needs of their clients, which include some of the biggest blue chip companies in the world, 34 of the world’s largest remittance companies, and 10 of the biggest global payment processors, along with large credit card processors.

AZA Finance has an extensive client list featuring giants like Heineken, Procter & Gamble, and Total, underscoring its market presence. Despite challenges like bad press or problematic markets, AZA’s product-market fit keeps them going.

Clients recognize the uniqueness of AZA products, its extensive coverage, and the compliance standards it upholds, driving the team through tough times. It’s not just about culture or personality; it’s about delivering a product that makes clients say, “Thank goodness for you.”

Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

One key lesson Elizabeth emphasizes is the importance of networking—even with those that founders might not naturally gravitate toward. Earlier, she avoided networking with people she didn’t share values with but later realized that connecting with them could open up new opportunities for capital.

Regular updates, coffee meetings, dinners, and networking events became part of the routine. Elizabeth stresses that capital isn’t distributed based on mathematical formulas but through relationships.

Many venture capitalists might struggle to understand frontier technologies or emerging markets like Africa, making it crucial for founders to communicate their vision clearly and in a digestible and non-intimidating way.

Finally, Elizabeth debunked the myth that “if you’re good at what you do, money will find you.” She argues that talent alone isn’t enough. She recounts meeting brilliant individuals in Senegal and Nairobi who, despite their abilities, didn’t have access to elite opportunities like Stanford.

Success often requires navigating networks, securing the right connections, and putting oneself in the right places rather than waiting for opportunities to come knocking.

In Conclusion

Elizabeth Rossiello’s journey as the founder of AZA Finance demonstrates the power of resilience, adaptability, and a strong sense of purpose. Her story, which is about a multicultural upbringing in Queens and her navigating the complexities of the African fintech landscape, is truly inspiring.

Elizabeth offers valuable lessons to entrepreneurs aiming to make a mark in emerging markets.

Her ability to push through regulatory challenges, scale AZA Finance, and build a pioneering cross-border payments network in Africa shows the importance of innovation and staying true to core values, even in the face of adversity.

Listen to the full podcast episode to know more, including:

• Resilience and adaptability are essential in navigating the volatile startup landscape.
• Early experiences, like growing up in diverse environments, can shape leadership skills.
• Networking is crucial for securing capital, even with those outside your comfort zone.
• The African fintech market offers unique challenges and opportunities for innovation.
• Staying true to core values and company culture strengthens long-term business success.
• Entrepreneurs must communicate their vision, especially in frontier markets.
• Success requires more than talent—it’s about leveraging networks and opportunities.

 

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