African financial technology company Zoona has successfully raised $15 million dollars (two hundred million Rand) in a second round of financing led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group to help Zoona scale up its operations as it aims to reach 10 markets and 30 million active consumers across Africa by 2020.
First round investors Accion, whose investment is managed by Quona Capital, and Omidyar Network, an impact investment firm started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, reaffirmed their commitment to Zoona by more than doubling their respective investments during the Series B round. The Lundin Foundation also increased its investment in Zoona during this round as well as 4Di Capital. Zoona further announced that Patrick Pichette, former Chief Financial Officer at Google and long-time Zoona advisor has invested in the company.
Zoona uses technology to provide financial services to underserved and financially excluded communities across Africa. Zoona has over 1.5 million active users, and its system has processed over $1 billion in mobile
money transactions since its founding 2009. The company’s mobile mone than 1,000 entrepreneurs to become Zoona Agents, creating over 2,500 jobs at 1,500 agent outlets in the process.
Since launching, it has created over 2,500 jobs in Zambia and Malawi, empowered over 1,000 entrepreneurs to start their own business and allowed them to reach earnings of over $10 million. The company has processed over $1 billion in mobile money transactions. In 2012, Zoona raised $4 million in an international Series A investment round led by the Omidyar Network and Accion.
