Ghanaian fintech company Zeepay Ghana Ltd announced that pan-African investment firms Africa50, Oikocredit, Injaro, Verdant Capital Hybrid Fund, and I&P have completed an equity investment in the company. The investment will fuel Zeepay’s expansion across Africa and the Caribbean.
Zeepay, a rapidly expanding payment infrastructure company operating in over 20 countries worldwide. They specialize in facilitating instant remittance settlements into mobile money wallets in Africa and the Caribbean for leading international money transfer organizations (IMTOs). Last year alone, the company processed over 10 million remittance transactions valued at over $3 billion.
Vision
With a vision to promote financial inclusion and revolutionize cross-border payments, Zeepay aims to expand its geographic reach and enhance its services to IMTOs, remittance senders, and recipients.
Founder & CEO of Zeepay Ghana Ltd Andrew Takyi-Appiah, expressed gratitude to stakeholders for their support in closing the investment round. “We would like to thank all our stakeholders, including our customers, shareholders, and staff, for all the support in bringing this round to a close. The raise will greatly assist us in completing our ongoing expansion drive into the rest of Africa. Our short to medium plan is to expand our mobile money reach into a minimum of 10 countries within the next two years, leveraging remittances in partnership with MoneyGram, and we are delighted to see this vision come through.”
Equity Investment and its objectives
Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure Investments at Africa50 Raza Hasnani highlighted the significance of Zeepay’s role in providing affordable and secure money transfer solutions, especially for African diaspora communities. “Africa50 is delighted to be partnering with Zeepay to support its leading role in the digital payments’ infrastructure space on the African continent and beyond. Foreign currency inflows from remittances are the lifeline for many African economies with sizable diaspora populations, especially in the current economic environment. Zeepay provides a local, affordable, secure, and convenient money transfer solution for the industrious African diaspora to support their loved ones,”
Equity Officer for Africa at Oikocredit, Samuel Kibiri underscored the importance of Zeepay’s digital wallets in addressing challenges related to transparency, cost, convenience, speed, and safety in remittance transactions. “We are delighted to partner with Zeepay as we grow our global portfolio of impactful fintech. Remittances are essential to financial inclusion for many households in Zeepay’s countries of operation, and its digital wallets help overcome challenges around transparency, cost, convenience, speed and safety for both senders and receivers of funds. We are pleased to partner with a fast-growing African business led by a capable team and look forward to supporting its growth,”
Co-CEO of I&P, Sebastien Boyé says” I&P’s follow-on investment in Zeepay demonstrates our conviction in the success and prospects of the business. We are proud to have partnered with a highly capable promoter and management team in delivering impressive financial and social returns over the past two years with our initial investment. We are excited to be joined by new like-minded investors and remain fully committed to supporting Zeepay to attain its goal of becoming a leading pan-African mobile financial services business impacting the lives of millions of underserved users across Africa and the Caribbean,”
The Managing Director of Injaro Investment Advisors Limited, Jerry Parkes emphasized the partnership’s significance in fostering economic development in Ghana and building linkages between local businesses and pension funds. “The Injaro team is honoured to partner with the Zeepay team, which Andrew Takyi-Appiah, a dynamic and visionary young Ghanaian entrepreneur, leads. We look forward to working together to achieve the ambitious goal of creating a successful Ghanaian multinational and a market leader in the fintech space.
“It is especially gratifying to finance Zeepay with Ghanaian capital as this ensures that profits from this investment flow back into the local economy to trigger a virtuous cycle of economic development. We believe that this investment represents an important first step in building linkages between Ghana’s pension funds and exceptional local businesses, which are important drivers of Ghana’s economic growth” he said
Director at Verdant Capital, Kwabena Appenteng praised Zeepay’s management team for achieving profitability early in its lifecycle and maintaining strong financial performance while expanding its footprint and revenue base. “Zeepay offers investors like Verdant an attractive combination of hard currency earnings through its remittance-to-the-wallet business and growth opportunities across the continent. Testament to the strength of the management team at Zeepay: the business reached profitability earlier in its lifecycle than other fintechs and has maintained strong profitability while growing and diversifying its footprint and revenue base.”
The equity investment will support Zeepay in expanding its geographical footprint and in deepening its offering to IMTOs as well as senders and recipients of remittances.
Source: https://www.itnewsafrica.com/2024/04/zeepay-secures-equity-investment-for-expansion/