According to 36 Krypton Sailing, MFS Africa, the largest cross-border cross wallet transfer center in Africa, announced that it had completed round C financing of more than 100 million dollars of equity and debt. This round of financing is jointly led by AfricInvest FIVE, Goodwell Investments and LUN Partners Group. The new investors include CommerzVentures, Allan Gray Ventures and Endeavor. ShoreCap III and other original investors continued to participate in the investment. Creditor investors include Lendable and Norsad.
Africa has a wide range of currencies, low bank coverage, high remittance and transfer fees, and a large use of mobile currency services,According to GSMA reportMore than half of the world's 300 mobile money service providers are in Africa. The electronic payment and transfer center of MFS Africa builds a bridge for transfer and payment by accessing many mobile currency platforms, cross-border transfer platforms, e-commerce platforms and financial institutions in African countries, so as to serve institutions and individual users. At present, MFS Africa's business covers more than 320 million mobile wallet users in 35 major African countries, and has more than 120 local payment partners in Africa.
The operation headquarters is located in Johannesburg, South Africa, with offices in Kampala, Uganda, Nairobi, Kenya, etc. MFS Africa will set up a new headquarters in London, the United Kingdom, and continue to add regional offices in Africa, the United States and China. The new financing will enable MFS Africa to expand its talent teams to support development. In addition, MFS Africa will also strengthen the governance, risks and compliance (GRC) departments, expand the liquidity pool, and continue to invest in other African technology companies.
MFS Africa also established a joint venture with the investor Youlun Group, MFS Africa Asia, to build a China Africa online cross-border payment platform.
According to the Report on Economic and Trade Relations between China and Africa (2021), in 2020, under the impact of the COVID-19, the total bilateral trade between China and Africa fell to 186.97 billion US dollars, down 10.5% year on year. However, China remained Africa's largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years. According to the Ministry of Commerce,From January to July this year, China Africa trade volume reached 139.1 billion US dollars, an increase of 40.5%, reaching the highest level in the same period in history。
According to MFS Africa Asia's introduction to 36 Krypton Sailing, the pain point of China Africa trade capital chain is capital exchange and management on the African side, while on the Chinese side it is mainly capital receipt and payment and trade compliance requirements. MFS Africa Asia will cooperate with African and domestic financial institutions and third-party payment companies to ensure compliance of cross-border payment and establish a convenient cross-border capital clearing process.
MFS Africa Asia's target customers in China are cross-border e-commerce platforms and traditional trade merchants, initially focusing on B2B small commodity online payment. At present, the traditional China Africa trade in Guangzhou, Yiwu and other places is mainly offline wholesale. The utilization rate of online cross-border payment is not high, and it basically comes from B2C e-commerce platforms. B2B has the potential to upgrade the market.
Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa, said that this round of financing will continue to be used for convenient cross-border payment, which is the beginning of the next stage of growth of MFS Africa.
Mr. Li Peilun, Chairman of Youlun Group, said: "MFS Africa is a financial technology company with very high strategic value, which connects the whole African continent. MFS Africa will further expand its global payment network through this financing, including the layout of its subsidiaries in Greater China. Youlun, as its strategic partner, will continue to assist MFS Africa in its business expansion in China and better serve cross-border payments between China and Africa."
Recently, MFS AfricaAcquired Nigeria payment enterprise Baxi, extending its pan African mobile payment network to the Nigerian market.
Article | Shi Yi
Editor | Zhao Xiaochun
Fig. | Unsplash
