A Finnish start up, whose technology enables mobile payments to be processed even in areas with no internet link, has attracted $600,000 in seed support.

Irofit drew funds from a group of backers led by Inventure, a Norwegian VC fund. Other participants included Solinor, a payment software firm, and Rasheed Olaoluwa, an individual investor with a background in African banking.

The funds will be used to finalise Irofit’s proprietary platform and the launch of the service in Nigeria.

The technology, which the firm says is patent-pending, processes card transactions without needing an Internet connection by using GSM connectivity instead.

The idea is to increase the coverage area where card payments are possible, giving the technology a potential appeal for developing countries.

The overall transaction success rates in areas with poor/no internet connection could increase from less than 50 per cent to over 90 per cent thanks to its technology, the firm claims.

In theory, this should make card ownership in developing countries more of an attractive proposition for local consumers.

“Emerging markets are the fastest growing economies in the world”, said Omoniyi Olawale (pictured), IroFit’s founder and CEO, “and they demand solutions designed specifically for their needs, rather than repurposed services originally built for Western markets.”

The startup was founded earlier this year in Finland.

In addition to the funding round, Irofit signed a major agreement with a leading financial institution, which it did not name, which guarantees a hundred thousand payment devices will be available to the Nigerian market upon launch.