PawaPay has announced a $9 million seed funding round to expand its mobile money payment solutions team, scale operations, and enter new markets.

This investment saw cheques from five firms. The round was led by Uk-based 88mph — a company that invests in web and mobile-centric technology solutions — and Chinese VC firm, MSA Capital. Other participants include African VC firm, Kepple Ventures; South African Vunani Capital; and Zagadat Capital, an investment firm owned by Oluwatosin Ajibade, popularly known as Mr Eazi in the Nigerian music scene.

PawaPay was spun off from online sports betting company betPawa last year. The company is led by CEO Nikolai Barnwell, a former head of New Markets, Africa at betPawa. He is also on the 88mph board.He founded pawaPay to help people send and receive money internationally using mobile money.

By combining data from Africa’s major telcos into a single mobile money API, it enables mobile payments for both domestic and international transactions/financial activities. Mobile can be used by both businesses and individuals to process payments, receive and transfer money, and pay bills.

The beta version of pawaPay is currently available in ten African countries: Cameroon, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

PawaPay aspires to be a market leader in high-volume mobile money payments while also providing merchants with dependability and transparency. Its API enables these merchants to receive and send payments to millions of mobile money accounts via telecom operators’ mobile money systems.