FINTECH MFS AFRICA BAGS ADDITIONAL EQUITY AND DEBT CAPITAL THAT TAKES ITS SERIES C TO $200 MILLION
Pan-African digital payments, MFS Africa has reportedly bagged $100 million in equity and debt, which meant additional funding that practically takes its Series C round to $200 million. The investment round was led by African investment manager Admaius Capital Partners.
Previously, investors from its initial Series C round such as CommerzVentures and AfricInvest FIVE continued as the subject fintect received capital from fresh investors: AXA Investment Managers and Vitruvian Partners. However, debt financing came from a Lagos-based bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, and Symbiotic.
In view of this development, the subject fintech stated that the fresh investment will allow the company to achieve four objectives. Firstly, to double down on its expansion plans across Africa. Also, the new fund will help the company further integrate into the global digital payment space as it plans to expand into Asia and create cross-border payments synergies with Africa via a joint venture with LUN Partners. The company also intends to carry out its growth plans for BAXI.
Despite strides, limitations still exist in the cross-border payments space even with connections across borders owing to the fact that millions of Africans can’t still use their mobile money accounts to pay for subscription-based services run by international companies like Amazon and Netflix. Therefore, it’s also worth noting that the Africa-focused and London-based company connects more than 320 million mobile money wallets across 35+ African countries and 700 corridors. MFS Africa had last week acquired U.S.-based Global Technology Partners (GTP) understood to be in a cash-and-share deal worth $34 million.
Global Technology Partner is a developer of prepaid and mobile payment software. Per PitchBook, GTP’s prepaid and mobile payment platform integrates several prepaid cards with a single bank account and allows users to make prepaid payments for ATMs and online shopping. However, the acquisition offered MFS Africa an ample opportunity to issue prepaid cards to its customers so they can perform these tasks, and, in turn, serve the African diaspora market notably in the United States.
“The strength of our business model is grounded on building a lasting digital infrastructure that unleashes and simplifies economic activities across the continent through any-to-any interoperability. Our multiple initiatives and solutions are providing access to Africans, at home and in the diaspora. We are building MFS Africa into a safe, sound, scalable, and high-impact pan-African payment infrastructure that will facilitate Africa’s rapidly growing commerce, both now and in the future”, Okoudjou stated.
The fintech equally noted its efforts in bringing in two hires to chart its next growth phase: ‘Meghan Taylor’, an ex-partner at Boston Consulting Group, ex-Africa CFO at telecom operator Millicom now operates as the company’s group chief financial officer.
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