Startup spotlight: OPay receives US$120mn from chinese investors

By Leah Netabai
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Over the past year the fintech industry has been booming, with the EMEA region seeing a formation of 3,583 startups since February 2019.

With over 60% of people in the African region remaining unbanked and unable to gain access to basic financial services, OPay aims to provide a one-stop mobile-based platform for everyday life payments for those in the African region, by developing innovative technology solutions.

In recent months, Africa has seen multiple investments from China in relation to Bankable Energy projects and geothermal projects in the region. 

This week, OPay has announced further Chinese investments in the region, with its list of Chinese investors which include: Meituan-Dianping,  GaoRong, Source Code Capital, Softbank Asia, BAI, Redpoint, IDG Capital, Sequoia China and GSR Ventures. As a result the fintech firm recieved a total funding of US$120mn to futher progress its fintech innovations. The funds will be utilised to scale up its operations in Nigeria as well as expanding its payment products into Kenya, Ghana and South Africa.

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Though OPay wants to focus the funding on everyday services that have a high frequency of use, the fintech firms has ambition to capture volume relating to bill payments and airtime purchases, including transportation and food services.

According to company statistics, since its first funding, OPay has scaled to 140,000 active agents and is managing a total of US$10 million in daily transaction volume.

The company brings further competition to the region, joining over 100 fintech firms registered since 2018 in the MEASA region. All of which are looking to penetrate the vastly untapped market of 1.2bn people unbanked in the region.

For more information on business topics in the Middle East and Africa, please take a look at the latest edition of Business Chief MEA.

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Image: TechCrunch

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