Ghanaian fintech startup Zeepay, has raised a US$7.9 million in a Series A funding round to help it further expand.
Zeepay is the fastest growing fintech focusing on digital rails to connect digital assets such as mobile money wallets ,cards ,ATMs, bank accounts and digital tokens to international money transfer operators, payments, subscriptions, international airtime and refugee payments. Zeepay is a mobile financial services company with offices around the World including the United Kingdom and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and other Regulators across Africa.
As mobile money is a similar concept to a bank account, funds held in a mobile money account are protected by Bank of Ghana regulations. Zeepay is required to check the identity of users making it much harder for fraudsters and criminals to use these services illegally. Every transaction requires identification in the form of a secret PIN which you need to keep secret from others. Additionally, mobile money services store a record of every transaction and account balance, so even if the phone or SIM card is lost or stolen, the user’s money is kept safe.
The startup has a footprint in more than 20 African markets, and in April 2020 was awarded an Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) license to operate as a mobile financial services company by the Bank of Ghana, the regulator of banking and financial services. It secured a US$940,000 seed funding round in December last year, and acquired Zambian counterpart Mangwee in April.
Zeepay’s Series A round is a hybrid of equity and balance sheet funding to support its operations, and was led by I&P, which invested in US$3 million, and supported by ARK Holdings, the privately-held family investment portfolio of Zeepay managing director Andrew Takyi-Appiah and Zoe Takyi-Appiah, which added US$800,000.
GOODsoil VC committed a follow-on investment to the tune of US$800,000, while Zeepay raised an additional US$3.3 million in debt capital to drive balance sheet activities, mainly for liquidity purposes. This was led by Absa Bank Ghana and supported by First National Bank Ghana.
