Mobile Payments Startup OPay Raises $50 Million in New Funding Round, Focused on African Market

源码资本·July 12, 2019·0·0

In just ten months, it has grown to 40,000 active agents, with daily transaction volume exceeding $5 million.

OPay, a mobile payments startup incubated by Opera and focused on the African market, has just announced a new $50 million funding round. Lead investors in this round include IDG Capital, HSG, Source Code Capital, Meituan, and GSR Ventures, as well as Opera (Nasdaq: OPRA), the company that founded OPay. The new capital will be used to strengthen OPay's market position in Nigeria, expand into other African countries, build brand value, and deepen vertical expansion — including ride-hailing and food delivery services.

Image source: OPay

OPay's mobile payments app launched in August 2018. As of June 2019, OPay had over 40,000 active agents and was processing more than $5 million in daily transaction volume, making it the largest mobile payments app in Nigeria. The company has already begun expanding into verticals, launching motorcycle ride-hailing brand ORide and food delivery brand OFood. Strong market demand has tested OPay's service capabilities, and the company is also building out its motorcycle fleet to ensure visibility in Nigeria, its primary market.

Image source: OPay

Opera, which benefits from significant traffic advantages, incubated and founded OPay in 2018. Over the past four years, Opera's web browser has ranked second in usage across Africa, behind only Chrome.

"We are very pleased to have IDG Capital, HSG, Source Code Capital, and others join as investors in OPay," said Yahui Zhou, Chairman and CEO of Opera Limited. "This additional funding will accelerate improvements to OPay's mobile payment services and drive new growth in verticals such as motorcycle ride-hailing and food delivery." "Furthermore, Opera's brand strengths and OPay's market leadership will reinforce each other, helping us establish leading positions in more verticals across the African market."

Opera-Incubated Mobile Payments Platform OPay Raises $50 Million

[The following section is republished from a July 10 report by US tech and venture media outlet TechCrunch]

OPay's investor lineup represents more than just another funding round for an African startup — it carries significance for Africa's internet ecosystem on multiple levels. The financing expands China's influence in Africa's tech sector. Previously, compared to China's role in infrastructure and commodities trading, its impact on African startups had been relatively limited.

In 2016, Opera was acquired by Chinese capital for $600 million. The deal was led by Opera's current CEO, Yahui Zhou. Most of OPay's investors in this round are Chinese funds, including Source Code Capital, Sequoia China, and GSR Ventures.

This funding round also holds important implications for Nigeria's digital finance development, as it positions the country to potentially surpass Kenya as Africa's leader in digital payments.

For years, Kenya has led Nigeria in peer-to-peer digital payments and digital financial inclusion, thanks to the rapid adoption of mobile money services like Safaricom's M-Pesa. One contributing factor has been restrictions by Nigeria's central bank on non-bank institutions — including telecom companies — offering mobile payment services. Earlier this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria relaxed many of these restrictions. This opened the door for mobile operators like MTN, which operates Nigeria's largest phone network, to offer mobile payment products. Beyond improvements in fintech regulation, venture capital flowing to Nigerian payments companies has also been gradually increasing.