Visa joins African fintech Moniepoint as a new investor. The business banking and payments platform confirmed to TechCrunch that it has received a “strategic investment” from the global payments giant as both companies look to drive financial inclusion and support the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Africa.
Sources close to the deal say the fintech – which announced an investment of $110 million last October, received more than $10 million from Visa. The fintech, whose Series C round now exceeds $120 million, is reportedly in talks with other investors and could attract more funding in the coming months, while maintaining its $1 billion valuation, sources say . Moniepoint declined to comment on the amount of Visa’s check or the interest of other investors.
Moniepoint provides businesses and individuals with bank accounts, credit, payments and other financial tools through an app and agent network. The fintech now processes over a billion transactions per month, with total payment volume reaching $22 billion, a growth of more than 25% in less than three months. Its rapid rise began during the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless payment drive in early 2023 and has continued steadily, positioning it as an important player shaping the future of digital payments in the country.
Moniepoint only holds a fraction of the total market. The digital payment market in Nigeria spans multiple channels, including electronic transfers, ATMs, point-of-sale devices, mobile agents and online payments. In 2023, businesses and consumers completed transactions worth approximately $400 billion, according to the change in interbank payments in the country. Electronic transfers, powered by the NIP instant payments network, comparable to UPI in India and Pix in Brazil, dominate the market, accounting for almost 90% of these transactions, according to Stears data. Other channels, such as mobile agents, ATMs and point-of-sale systems, lag far behind.
Although Moniepoint operates in most of these channels, Visa’s investment highlights the fintech’s position and potential in Nigeria’s cards value chain, both as a major issuer and acquirer.
“We are present in Nigeria today, leading the pack in merchant acquiring and consumer banking,” CEO Tosin Eniolorunda told TechCrunch. “With Visa as an investor, we can collaborate strategically to continue to grow the payments ecosystem and expand to more countries, which is a key objective for us.”
One of the ways the two companies will look to “grow the payment ecosystem” is by introducing contactless payments, Eniolorunda said. “The central bank has indicated the need to promote contactless services to improve accessibility and carry out micro-transactions. So those are some of the things we expect from the partnership. This is progress in the right direction.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has shown its latest intention to drive the adoption of contactless payment with draft guidelines on transaction limits in 2023. However, implementation will depend on clearer regulations and resolving issues related to privacy, security and trust. Once solved, contactless payments could significantly increase transaction volumes and arguably overtake other payment methods in the country.
Globally, Visa notes that use of contactless cards exceeds mobile wallets in many markets. Moniepoint is well positioned to lead this transition in Nigeria by offering contactless payment terminals to businesses and smart cards to individuals, paving the way for further adoption.
On the other hand, Moniepoint will exploit Visa’s Cybersource system to obtain better visibility on transactions. Additionally, it plans to integrate with Visa Direct for remittances and money transfers as it seeks to expand into markets within and outside Africa.
Visa has a history of investing in payments infrastructure in Africa, supporting players like Interswitch, Flutter Wave, Payroll stackAnd JUMO over the last decade. With Moniepoint, Visa is entering the Nigerian SME market, with the aim of digitizing their payments and partly in the hope of increasing their its share of the country’s card systems market. Currently, it lags behind Verve and Interswitch’s Mastercard in terms of cards. The latter two have also started to make inroads into the tap-to-pay space.
“Visa’s investment in Moniepoint is the latest example of our long-standing commitment to advancing digital economies in Africa,” said Andrew Torre, regional president for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Africa at Visa. “We will enable even the smallest businesses to thrive through innovative payment and software solutions that enable SMEs to scale and unlock new revenue opportunities while streamlining their operations. »
Visa will join Moniepoint’s board of directors following its investment. Other prominent fintech backers include Development Partners International, Google Africa Investment Fund, QED Investors, Lightrock and British International Investment (BII), among others. Last week, we also reported that one of the first funders, Oui Capital, recently returned its first fund after investing in the African unicorn six years ago.