INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Jake Bright
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Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City
He is co-author of The Next Africa.
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Nigeria Piggybank.ng raises $1.1M, announces group investment
product
Africa Roundup: Safaricom unveils Bonga, Africa Talking gets $8.6M, TechCrunch visits Nigeria, Ghana
Forty-seven and a
half million dollars is a big commitment to African technology companies — even with the recent uptick in VC investment on the
continent.
But for the Kenyan-based fintech firmCellulant,whose digital payments platform processed 7 million transactions worth $350
million across 33 African countries in the last month alone, raising that amount in a series C round led byTPG Growth Rise Fundjust makes
sense.
In 2017, the company processed $2.7 billion in payments, saidchief executive, Ken Njoroge.
Clients include the continent largest
banks: Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered, Standard Bank, and Ecobank
Cellulant also has multiple revenue streams and is EBITDA positive, according to its CEO.
So what does an African technology company do with
$47.5 million &The round is to accelerate our growth of around 20 percent…north of 50 percent,& said Njoroge
&Most of the investment is to scale out our existing platform in Africa and build usage on our existing network.&
Founded in 2004, Cellulant
offers Person-to-Business,B2B, and P2B services on its Mula and Tingg products
It also developing a blockchain basedAgrikoreproduct for agriculture related market activity.
On Africa digital payments potential, &We&ve
built internal value models that estimate the size of the market at somewhere between $25BN and $40BN,& said Njoroge.
He differentiates
Cellulant focus fromSafaricom M-Pesa &one of Africa most recognized payment products — by transaction type and scope
&Kenya M-Pesa is optimized as a P2P platform in a few African countries
We&re optimized as a P2B platform and single pipe into multiple countries across Africa,& he said.
One of those countries is economic and
population powerhouse Nigeria — where Cellulant offers both itsTing and Agrikore apps
Nigeria is also home to notable digital payment companiesPagaand Interswitch, the latter of which has expanded across Africa and is
considered acandidate for a public offering.
On a future Cellulant initial public offering, &it too early,& said Njoroge
But he doesn&t rule it out
&When you look at the size of the payments business, you could say we have fairly strong prospects to go in that direction.&
TONY
KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images
Meanwhile, the Nigerian investment startupPiggybank.ngclosed $1.1M in seed funding and announced a new product —
Smart Target, which offers a more secure and higher return option forEsusuorAjogroup savings clubs common across West Africa.
The financing
was led by a $1 million commitment fromLeadPath Nigeria, withVillage CapitalandVentures Platformjoining the round.
Founded in 2016,
Piggybank.ng offers online savings plans — primarily to low and middle-income Nigerians — for deposits of small amounts on a daily,
weekly, monthly, or annual basis
There are no upfront fees.
Savers earn interest rates of between 6 to 10 percent, depending on the type and duration of investment,
Piggybank.ng Somto Ifezue explained in thisTechCrunch exclusive.
The startup generates returns for small-scale savers (primarily) through
investment in Nigerian government securities, such as bonds and treasury bills.
Piggybank.nggenerates revenue through asset management and
fromthe floatits balances generate at partner banks.
The Lagos based startup will use its $1.1M in new seed funding for &license acquisition
and product development,& according to company COO Odunayo Eweniyi.
Piggybank.ng looks to grow clients across younger Nigerians and the
country informal saving groups and has taken preliminary steps to launch in other African countries.
Lead investor andLeadPath
Nigeriafounder Olumide Soyombo was attracted to Piggybank.ng as an acquisition target.
&The banks have been slow to try new things in this
Piggybank is coming in…and filling a particular need, so they are in a very acquisitive space.&
PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images
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