Opay, Opera’s Africa’s focused payments and everything platform has added OTrike, a tricycle hailing service to its portfolio, as it moves to become Africa’s biggest super-app.
Use cases for its payments platform and data collection
OTrike comes just a few months after Opay launched ORide in Nigeria in a move various analysts claim OPay’s strategy to build as many use cases for its payments platform as possible. The data is also important for its Opera browser, it’s loans service OKash and the many other services data can do.
OTrike in Abia State
OTrike, which has been launched in Aba this month will be expanded across the country after rigorous tests according to sources within the firm. Available to users in Aba such as Brass, Ariaria and Enyimba, the over 2m population is large enough to be a sample population for the firms pilot.
OTrike is not the end for Opay as there are buses and trucks on the menu and digital products like music and movies on the go. After moving consumers and services such as utility and peer-to-peer payments, OPay is expected to play big in moving commodities and it won’t be surprising for them to take on Kobo360 or Lori Systems in Nigeria.
Opay e-shop in the offing?
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Opay is also not limited to just transport and services, there is a huge opportunity for it in ecommerce and we are likely to see an ecommerce platform run by OPay. Mostly an in-app shop using AI built on OPay user data. This is not far-fetched because DHL recently launched its pan-African eshop after years of running shipping and logistics for global firms and ecommerce platforms.
AI and data collection
Warehouses might be the next thing and before we know it, OPay will be playing big in the home delivery retail business after its online food delivery grows from just groceries to the entire shopping cart.
Aba, Your OTrike is here!!! Let's take you from Brass to Ariaria and even to Enyimba for just 20 Naira. Download the OPay app to use OTrike.
— ORide (@oride_ng) August 8, 2019
Tag an Aba resident.#OTrike #OTrikeInAba pic.twitter.com/zvtJsc9O2q
OPay now powers online food ordering, purchase airtime for family or friends from any network, payments for electricity bills, GOTV, DSTV and STARTIMES subscription, now hailing for ORides and OTrikes. The future is just limitless for Opera, the mother firm, which has both the resources and the technology to scale into more services. Money is not an issue as the firm has invested its own $100m into these and is willing to put in even more.
Golden Brick Capital
Another $100 million might be in the offing as Opera Software, the firm that owns OPay and ORide and now OTrike verticals is owned by Chinese firm Golden Brick Capital, a private equity fund which purchased Opera’s consumer business for $575 million three years ago.
“Africa is a very important market for Opera. Nine of the top 20 Opera Mini user countries are from Africa,” said Richard Monday, Vice President of Africa, Opera Software. “We aim to invest heavily in Africa, to build a local platform and grow with the local business partners. This platform will expand the user base for content providers, e-commerce businesses, operators, OEM’s and others to strengthen the African internet ecosystem.”
