Congrats to the Zeepay team! The Ghanaian mobile money merchant service platform Zeepay launched at DEMO Africa 2015 by VC4Africa member Andrew Takyi-Appiah secured an investment of USD 200K from a local institutional investor and closed partnerships with Airtel and other large international mobile operators.
This September Zeepay was one of 30 tech innovations launched at the DEMO Africa 2015 event in Lagos, Nigeria. Zeepay is a Ghanaian owned company enabling mobile payments from both smart phones and other mobile phones and supporting international remittances onto points of sale, with mobile money as a payment instrument. Operating as an aggregator for mobile financial services, the company partners with mobile network operators and various payment services providers, developing a retail payment ecosystem for mobile money in Ghana and internationally, aiming to improve financial inclusion for all groups in society.
Although the company did not disclose details about the investor behind its new USD 200K deal, it is clear Zeepay’s new partner is a local institutional investor with significant market share and dozens of distribution outlets, which Zeepay intends to leverage for remittance payout and more. The company plans to use the new capital secured to expand the service offering and accelerate adoption of mobile money in Ghana and Africa.
On top of this new investment Zeepay closed a number of partnerships including one with Airtel, the third largest mobile operator in the world, with hundreds of millions of subscribers – and one with Tigo Cash, part of international telecommunications and media company Millicom, with tens of millions of customers. Zeepay will create a payment ecosystem for mobile money where Airtel users can pay for goods and services at points of sale. Also Zeepay will provide a remittance hub channeling remittances into Ghana directly onto mobile wallets, and support cash in and cash out.
“Zeepay is excited to come to market with a payment app which enables mobile money to be used as a payment instrument”, said Zeepay’s founder Andrew Takyi-Appiah. About pitching at DEMO Africa he shared: “I loved the preparation we got, the direct support and insight into investment deals and how to on board new shareholders. The exposure has been great and significantly improved our market acceptance and profiling from potential investors.”
Asked about funding, he added: “We have been able to close fund raising rounds from two major investors and are ready to move to market. In fact we are launching on the third at an all star cast event with stakeholders like FNB Bank South Africa, TIGO, Airtel, Mastercard Foundation, Barclays and Rueters all present. We are excited about the future and looking forward to 2016.”
Zeepay’s end to end platform allows various wallet operators and payment providers in Ghana and Africa. The platform can be used by retailers including SME type merchants that wish to accept mobile money payments. “We are delighted to be the first to introduce a commercial platform that aggregates all mobile wallets and other third party wallets”, the founder shared.
According to BMI Research, Mobile Money usage currently hovers around 78 million wallets in Africa and is projected to grow over 100 million by end of 2015. Ghana alone has about 7 million wallets and is estimated to have performed 130 million transactions valued around USD 5.7 billion in 2014, Zeepay shared.
A last shout out from Zeepay founder Andrew Takyi-Appiah: “I’d like to thank certain people who have supported our vision from the start: First capital Plus bank, OSA Thomson Mensah, Aaron Sackey, the Board of a First Capital Plus Bank, Kwame Oppong of Tigo, Judith Bossman of TIGO, Carl of TIGO, Edmund of Airtel Money and team, Zoe Phillips, Dr A. K. Appiah, Agyaku Achampong Kyei, Paa Kwasi Yankey, Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Martyn Mensah”.
Credit: vc4africa.biz
