MFS Africa, a pan-African digital payments network has raised $100 million in equity and debt funding to shore up its earlier received Series C fund, rounding up the total funding for the series to $200 million.
The new round was led by Admaius Capital Partners, an African investment manager, it also saw participation from Vitruvian Partners and AXA Investment Manager while the debt financing came from Stanbic IBTC Bank and Symbiotic.
According to the digital platform, the newly secure investment will enable the company to grow beyond Africa into Asia whilst creating cross-border payments synergies with Africa via a joint venture with LUN Partners as it executes its growth plans for BAXI, a startup it acquired late last year.
What you should know
- MFS Africa recently acquired U.S.-based Global Technology Partners (GTP) for $34 million as part of its global expansion drive.
- It also signed an agreement to acquire Capricorn Digital, Baxi’s parent business, for an undisclosed sum last year.
- The 100% cash acquisition is geared toward growing MFS into Africa’s largest economy where its footprint has been constrained due to the country’s limited number of mobile wallets. Capricorn will now be known as MFS Africa, but its flagship product, Baxi, will remain the same.
- The company raised $100 million in Series C financing – split between $70 million equity and $30 million debt, in November.
- The company said it is working on setting interoperability between payment networks in the Asian country and Africa, starting from Nigeria before spreading to other markets.
What the company is saying
Dare Okoudjou, the founder and CEO said, “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.”
