Africa-focused mobile money startup PawaPay closes on a $9M seed funding.
The seed raise was co-headed by MSA, UK-based investment fund 88mph, Vunani Capital, Kepple Ventures and Zagadat Capital. The seed raise is to be employed to scale pawaPay’s operational presence, expand the team’s manpower, as well as expand the brand’s markets across Africa.
A RIDE DOWN MEMORY LANE.
Ever since it’s inception in 2020, pawaPay has focused on the mobile money infrastructure provided by telecommunications companies (telco) in Africa and has strived to bring a seamless culture of operation in the continent.
Before now, the mobile money infrastructure in Africa has been characterized by a highly fragmented and opaque structure. Payments had also been made difficult by large unbanked populations, decline in credit card transactions, fraud, dropped and so much more. PawaPay came up with it’s simple API that has over the years helped merchants to be able to access more than 300 million customers in more than ten markets and enjoy seamless, transparent and highly reliable payments.
PROGRESSIVE TRACK-RECORD.
- Currently, the brand successfully handles millions of transactions on its rails per week.
- The brand has operations over 8 countries.
- They handle local operations, compliance, regulatory cover and bank accounts.
- With a single API, pawaPay’s customers are able to access all telco mobile money systems; receive and send payments to hundreds of millions of people.
- The brand is trusted for its excellent delivery, reliability and transparency.
WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY.
Pawapay is excited to have world-class investors support their vision to connect every mobile money wallet in Africa to each other. It is one of the company ambitions to make payments seamless and simple.
As regards the brand’s raise and growth prospects, Pawapay’s CEO, Nikolai Barnwell had this to say:
Africa’s alternative financial infrastructure is in an exciting phase with double digits CAGR everywhere. And mobile money has come out as the de facto money infrastructure for hundreds of millions of people on the continent. A quarter of the adult population is an active mobile money user. A third of all wallet holders have their salaries paid into them. We’re making a bet that this infrastructure will continue to grow and offer a superior experience than traditional financial infrastructures such as card and banking. With more than 500 million registered users on the continent – 200 million of which are active frequent users, this isn’t a fringe fad or a stepping stone to cards and swift payments. This is an example for the rest of the world of how payments could – and should look. Most of our competitors are largely focused on bank and card payments; but over the past many years we have been laser focused on addressing the unique set of challenges that accompanies specializing in mobile money. I think this gives us a good position to explore the opportunities that are coming up as this alternative financial infrastructure continues to grow.
According to Kresten Buch, Founder of 88mph:
When we first invested in Africa in 2010, one of the key drivers was that mobile money was a superior payment method to credit and debit cards when used for online payment. So, we are excited to be an investor in pawaPay’s journey and continue to witness the development of digital infrastructure in Africa.
Mr. Eazi, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and Founder of Zagadat Capital buttressed:
Being investors hugely focused on Africa and very familiar with the landscape, we believe that mobile money focused fintech is not just one of the most exciting places to invest but also one of the most important bridges to ensuring financial inclusion of the billions of people across the continent, the kicker for us was that we believe in the clear mission, vision and strategy & we are confident that the pawaPay team is the best team to achieve it.
