Digital payments network MFS Africa has raised $100m in Series C funding, marking another milestone in the company’s expansion.
AfricInvest FIVE, a new investor, co-led the round with existing investors Goodwell Investments and LUN Partners Group.
CommerzVentures, Allan Gray Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Harvest also joined the round as new investors, while ShoreCap III returned as an existing investor, along with other funds. Providers of debt financing included Lendable and Norsad.
MFS Africa netted $4.5m in its Series B funding round in 2018, led by China-based LUN Partners Group.
MFS Africa’s vision is to make borders matter less, it does this through interoperability across payments schemes, borders and currencies.
In 2010, the digital payments company forecast that mobile money wallets would be the most dominant digital wallet in Africa. Today, its hub connects over 320 million mobile money wallets.
The company’s infrastructure enables disbursements and collections, and connects partners to its network footprint of MNOs, Banks and Cash Pickups through its API or payments portal, Beyonic.com. In addition to mobile remittance services, MFS Africa enables merchant payments, bulk payments, bank-to-wallet transfers and an array of other cross-border and domestic digital payments services.
The Series C funding will enable MFS Africa to hire additional talent in Africa and globally to support its exponential growth. Part of the new funding has also been earmarked to continue strengthening the company’s Governance, Risks and Compliance (GRC) functions as well as its treasury and liquidity pool.
The company has opened new offices in Abidjan, Kampala, Kinshasa, Nairobi and Lagos, in addition to establishing London as its new headquarters. MFS Africa recently signed an agreement to acquire Baxi, a leading super-agent in Nigeria, and plans to build Baxi into a key node, allowing regional payments into and from Nigeria.
Continuing on its current growth trajectory, MFS Africa said it intends to additional regional offices in key African markets, as well as in the USA and China.
Copyright © 2021 FinTech Global
