Africa-focused fintech company OPay raised $400 million in new financing round. This funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 valuing the company at $2 billion, Bloomberg reports.
The round had participation from existing investors like Sequoia Capital China, Redpoint China, Source Code Capital, and Softbank Ventures Asia. Other investors including DragonBall Capital and 3W Capital also took part in the new financing round.
This news comes two years after OPay raised a $120 million Series B in 2019.
Founded in 2018, the company’s monthly transaction volumes exceeds $3 billion. In addition to expanding in other African countries, OPay is focused on the Middle East as well.
Previously, Opay offered ride-hailing and logistics services across different cities in Nigeria before closing it down due to a government ban. Right now, the company’s mobile money which has a network of agents and serves the unbanked and underbanked users in Nigeria is the most widely used.
Parent company, Opera reported that OPay’s monthly transactions grew 4.5 times to over $2 billion in December last year. OPay also claims to process about 80% of bank transfers among mobile money operators in Nigeria and 20% of the country’s non-merchant point of sales transactions.
Opay is now the new African fintech unicorn joining billion dollar companies like Flutterwave, Jumia, Interswitch and Fawry.
What they are saying
OPay CEO Yahui Zhou said, “We want to be the power that helps emerging markets reach a faster economic development. The company’s technology is designed to replace cash and other legacy payment methods, helping local governments improve financial and information security.”
Kentaro Matsui, a SoftBank Group Corp. managing director and former managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, which oversees Vision Fund and Vision Fund 2 said, “We believe our investment will help the company extend its offering to adjacent markets and replicate its successful business model in Egypt and other countries in the region,”
