Float

Split credit card purchases into up to 24 monthly instalments

Epitaph

“Here lies Float. It promised to close the cash-flow gap for African SMBs, then quietly gambled client deposits on black-market naira-to-USDT trades. A broker vanished with a million dollars, the naira sank, and the liquidity company ran dry. Six million in client funds stayed frozen.”

Overview

Born: 2020 (Year)
Died: September 2023 (Month)
Lifespan: 4 years
Fate: Shut down
Headquarters: 🇿🇦 South Africa
Category: Fintech
Stage at death: Series A
Funding raised: 13.6M
Primary cause: Governance or fraud
Contributing causes: Business model or unit economics, External shock, Execution

Death certificate

Timeline

2020Float founded
Jesse Ghansah launches Float in Ghana to close the SMB liquidity gap
January 2022$17M Series A
Float raises a Series A led by Tiger Global
May 2023FX trading losses
Float loses about $1M when a currency broker fails to deliver promised USDT
June 2023Naira devaluation
Nigeria's FX policy shift causes a roughly 63% naira devaluation, compounding losses
September 2023Investigation and collapse
TechCabal exposes forensic-audit findings of intentional deception

Autopsy report

Why did Float shut down?

Ghanaian fintech Float, which had raised over $17M to address SMB liquidity gaps, collapsed in September 2023 after a forensic audit revealed it had lost millions in client naira deposits through risky, unregulated FX/USDT trading and a pattern of alleged intentional deception by leadership, beyond the single merchant scam first reported.

What Float attempted

Provide liquidity and cash-advance products for African SMBs to solve payment-cycle cash-flow gaps, later engaging in FX arbitrage trading of naira-to-USDT to offer fast cross-border settlement to fintech clients holding naira deposits.

What worked

Raised a $17M Series A led by Tiger Global (January 2022) and built a base of fintech clients that used it for treasury and liquidity management.

Early warning signs

Management became inaccessible to clients and press; the company continued risky FX trading despite mounting losses; investors ultimately ordered a forensic audit.

What happened

Float began using client naira deposits to trade for USD/USDT via unregulated black-market brokers, promising 48-hour conversion. In May 2023 a broker allegedly absconded with $1M of a $2.5M USDT purchase; Nigeria's June 2023 FX policy shift and steep naira devaluation caused further losses; a forensic audit and a TechCabal investigation (published September 1, 2023) found a pattern of intentional deception rather than a one-off scam, leaving at least $6M in client deposits trapped across multiple startups, and Float ceased operations that September.

Lessons for future builders

Custodying client money while taking unregulated trading bets is a breach waiting for an audit. Never deploy customer deposits into speculative positions, ring-fence client funds, and give investors real-time visibility before losses compound.