2024-10-29 23:24:19 :
(Bloomberg) — Nigerian cash transfer startup Moniepoint raised $110 million in a stake sale to expand its business at home and across Africa, its chief executive said.
Founder and CEO Tosin Eniolorunda said the Series C round, backed by Google and Development Partners International LLP’s Africa Investment Fund, will enable the company to conduct cross-border remittances and expand banking services to French-speaking African countries.
“We have different levels of involvement in remittance approvals,” Eni Lorenda said in an interview. “We want to deploy banking operations to other countries.”
Founded in 2015 to provide infrastructure and payment solutions to Africa’s most populous country, Moniepoint has achieved rapid expansion by leveraging Nigeria’s central bank’s cashless drive and widespread insecurity to promote the use of digital payment platforms, Eniolorunda said.
The Financial Times earlier reported that the funding round gave the company so-called “unicorn” status, worth more than $1 billion, the Financial Times reported earlier, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. This puts the company into the ranks of other companies such as Flutterwave, OPay and Jumia Technologies AG, which have all achieved or exceeded elusive valuations by exploring the Nigerian market.
Read: Cash crisis a boon for Nigerian mobile money startups
Moniepoint processes 800 million transactions per month, worth approximately $17 billion, according to Eniolorunda. He said the company hopes to launch inventory management “as soon as possible” to complement other banking services such as debit cards, savings, loans and payments.
—With assistance from Anthony Squarzin.
(All updated with CEO’s comments)
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