Nigerian Fintech Startup Paga Secures USD 10 Mn Series B2 Round, Set To Expand Globally
Prominent Nigerian fintech startup Paga is reported to have received a Series B2 round of funding totaling USD 10 Mn from Global Innovation Fund. Other investors in the round are Goodwell, Adlevo Capital, Omidyar Network and Unreasonable Capital.
The information was disclosed by the CEO of Paga, Tayo Oviosu in a chat at Disrupt San Francisco. Along this line, he disclosed that Paga is putting things in place to expand internationally, to release its payments product to countries such as Ethiopia, Mexico, and the Philippines. With this new round of funding, Paga now has financing that sums up to US 35 Mn.
According to Oviosu, the financial move would see the fintech startup tow the path of international expansion, following the footprints of prominent, global payment firms such as PayPal, AliPay, and Safricom’s M-Pesa. However, the CEO on his part is not on a mission to compete with these players, but to build a formidable system that would outpace and outmatch them. He says Paga’s “goal is to build a global payment system across many emerging markets.”
Oviosu made reference to Spotify and Uber, pointing out that these multinationals had their humble beginnings before making real-time expansions to other nations. He disclosed that Paga’s team members had garnered relevant knowledge and experience from having worked for global tech names. According to him, Paga can stand “shoulder to shoulder” with any payments company that has been built somewhere else.
Paga was founded in 2012, as a platform that used for/in money transfer, bill payments, and digital buys. With the aid of its 17,176 agents and money transfer mobile applications that further simplify the P2P payment process from mobile devices, Paga has what it takes to offer service to more than 9 million customers in Nigeria. Over 6,000 businesses are using Paga’s services, and the startup is said to have processed transaction worth USD 3.6 Bn.
The products are IOS, Android and USSD compatible, having remittance partnerships with Western Union and Moneytrans among the likes. Paga also has added a service that allows third-party integration into its applications.
According to reports following the financial development, Global Innovation partners will become board members in the Paga hem of affairs.
Image Courtesy: Medium Via Wharton Fintech
This development was first reported by Technext.ng.
