PawaPay, an African payments business, has raised $9 million in seed funding. MSA and 88mph, a UK-based investment fund, co-led the round, which also included Vunani Capital, Kepple Ventures, and Zagadat Capital.
pawaPay, which was founded in 2020, focuses on the mobile money infrastructure offered by African telecoms carriers.
Merchants can reach more than 300 million clients in more than 10 markets using pawaPay’s simple API, and enjoy seamless, transparent, and highly dependable payments.
“Africa’s alternative financial infrastructure is at an exciting phase with double-digit CAGR everywhere,” said Nikolai Barnwell, CEO of pawaPay, in response to the company’s increase and development prospects. And for hundreds of millions of individuals on the continent, mobile money has become the de facto money infrastructure. Mobile money is used by a quarter of the adult population. A third of all wallet owners have their paychecks deposited into their wallets. We’re betting that this infrastructure will expand and provide a better experience than traditional financial infrastructures like credit cards and banking. This isn’t a passing craze or a stepping stone to cards and quick payments, with more than 500 million registered users on the continent 200 million of whom are regular frequent users. This is an illustration of how payments could – and should look for the rest of the world. Most of our competitors are primarily focused on bank and card payments, but we’ve been laser-focused on addressing the particular set of issues that comes with specialized in mobile money for many years. This, I believe, puts us in an excellent position to investigate the opportunities that may emerge as this alternative financial infrastructure develops, Barnwell added”
“Being investors hugely focused on Africa and very familiar with the landscape, we believe that mobile money-focused fintech is not only 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,” said Mr. Eazi, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and Founder of Zagadat Capital.
The funds will be used to grow pawaPay’s operational footprint, hire more employees, and expand into other regions across Africa.
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