Visa has joined African fintech Moniepoint as a new investor. The business banking and payments platform confirmed to TechCrunch that it received a “strategic investment” from the global payments giant as both companies look to drive financial inclusion and support the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Africa.
Sources close to the deal say the fintech — which announced a $110 million investment last October — received more than $10 million from Visa. The fintech, whose Series C now tops $120 million, is said to be in talks with other investors and could raise more funding in the coming months, all while maintaining its billion-dollar valuation, sources say. Moniepoint declined to comment on the size of Visa’s check or interest from other investors.
Moniepoint offers businesses and individuals bank accounts, loans, payments and other financial tools through an app and a network of agents. Fintech now processes over 1 billion transactions per month, with total payment volumes reaching $22 billion – an increase of over 25% in less than three months. Its rapid growth began during the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless move in early 2023 and has continued steadily, positioning it as an important player shaping the future of digital payments in the country.
Moniepoint has only a fraction of the total market. Nigeria’s digital payments market spans multiple channels, including wire transfers, ATMs, POS devices, mobile agents and online payments. In 2023, businesses and consumers completed transactions worth about $400 billion, according to the country’s Interbank Payments Pass. Electronic transfers, enabled by the instant payment network NIP – comparable to India’s UPI and Brazil’s Pix – dominate the market, accounting for nearly 90% of these transactions, according to data from Stears. Other channels, such as mobile agents, ATMs and point-of-sale systems, lag far behind.
While Moniepoint operates in most of these channels, Visa’s investment highlights the fintech’s position and potential in Nigeria’s card value chain as a leading issuer and acquirer.
“We are present in Nigeria today, leading the chart in merchant acquisition and consumer banking,” CEO Tosin Eniolorunda told TechCrunch. “With Visa as our investor, we can partner strategically to continue growing the payments ecosystem and expanding into more countries, which is a key objective for us.”
One way both companies will look to “grow the payments ecosystem” is by introducing contactless payments, Eniolorunda said. “The central bank has indicated the need to run contactless services to improve access and conduct of micro-transactions. So these are some things we expect from the partnership. It’s progress in the right direction.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria indicated its recent intention to push the adoption of contactless payments with draft guidelines for transaction limits in 2023. However, implementation will depend on clearer regulations and the resolution of privacy-related issues, security and trust. Once addressed, contactless payments can significantly increase transaction volumes and possibly surpass other payment methods in the country.
Globally, Visa notes that the use of contactless cards exceeds mobile wallets in many markets. Moniepoint is in the sweet spot to lead this transition in Nigeria by offering contactless payment terminals for businesses and chip cards for individuals, setting the stage for further adoption.
In turn, Moniepoint will use Visa’s Cybersource system to gain better visibility into transactions. Additionally, it plans to integrate with Visa Direct for remittances and money transfers as it aims to expand into markets within and outside Africa.
Visa has a history of investing in Africa’s payments infrastructure, supporting players such as Interswitch, Flutterwave, Paystack and JUMO over the past decade. With Moniepoint, Visa is making its foray into Nigeria’s SME market, aiming to digitize payments for them and partly in hopes of increasing its share of the country’s card scheme market. It currently lags behind Interswitch’s Verve and Mastercard in cards. These last two have begun to make inroads into the tap-to-pay opportunity as well.
“Visa’s investment in Moniepoint is the latest example of our long-term commitment to advancing digital economies in Africa,” said Andrew Torre, Regional President, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa. “We will enable even smaller businesses to thrive through innovative payments and software solutions that allow SMEs to scale and open new revenue opportunities by streamlining their operations.”
Visa will join Moniepoint’s board following its investment. Other notable fintech backers include Development Partners International, Google’s Africa Investment Fund, QED Investors and British International Investments (BII), among others. Last week, we also reported that an early backer, Oui Capital, recently returned its first fund after investing in the African unicorn six years ago.
