Zeepay, an African Fintech firm with operations in over ten African countries, today announced the acquisition of a 51% stake in Mangwee Mobile Money Zambia.
Zeepay and Mangwee decided to sell 51% of Mangwee shares to Zeepay in a private placement.
Zeepay Ghana will become the entity’s majority shareholder as a result of the transaction.
Mangwee has been in operation since 2018, and was originally created to serve as an alternative wallet for Zambian university students, with the aim of lowering the cost of mobile money services.
Zeepay specializes in sending money to mobile money wallets across Africa and is regulated by the Bank of Ghana as an EMI issuer and the Financial Conduct Authority as a Money Transfer Operator in the United Kingdom.
The merger is the first of its kind; the fact that two indigenous African fintechs have merged to form Mobile Money operations represents a wind of change blowing across the African continent.
Verdant Capital, Zeepay’s financial adviser, served as the acquisition’s M&A advisor.
In an interview, Andrew Takyi-Appiah, the Managing Director of Zeepay, said, “In 2020, we handled 2.4 million transactions estimated at $400 million across 10 markets.”
“The decision to invest in Mangwee is part of our global strategy to extend our presence across Africa,” said Paa Kwasi Yankey, Chairman of Zeepay. In order to better serve our global clients and lower remittance costs to Africa.”
Mangwee’s acquisition is strategic in that it gives Zeepay access to the Southern African market.
“This will offer Zeepay access to Mozambique, Malawi, Angola, and Namibia, among other countries, in our efforts to capture Africa’s $70 billion remittance market and deploy our award-winning products,” says the company.
Read More on Tech Gist Africa:
Revix, a cryptocurrency investment platform based in South Africa, has raised $4.1 million