Wapi Pay, a Kenyan fintech startup, has raised a $2.2 million pre-seed capital to help financial transactions between Africa and Asia.
MSA Capital, EchoVC, Kepple Africa, Future Hub, Transsion Holdings, and Gobi Ventures were among the investors in the round.
To solve the problem of costly financial transfers between Africa and Asia, Paul and Eddie Ndichu started Wapi PAy.
“We created Wapi Pay after seeing how fragmented the payment infrastructure is and how horrible the experience and cost of sending and receiving money to and from Asia is,” Paul Ndichu said.
Apart from Kenya, the startup has a presence in China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, with plans to expand internationally.
The startup claims to have grown at a 396 percent annual pace since its inception in 2019 and expects to process $500 million in remittances by the end of next year, among other goals.
The new funds will assist Wapi Pay in diversifying its product offering and driving growth, allowing it to transition from remittances to real-time global cross-border payments, beginning in Africa and Asia, in the near future.